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by jandrese 2655 days ago
It shouldn't be a surprise why programming languages are easier to learn. The grammer is highly regular and the vocabulary is absolutely tiny. Even complex computer languages are toys compared to any spoken language. Plus with computer languages you have a machine that can tell you if you're doing it right at your beck and call all day long. No need to bother a real life person to practice.
1 comments
lordnacho 2655 days ago
Plus computer code is always in Latin/English script.

Even if you just study a Western European language you'll end up with extra characters. A bit further afield and you end up with alternative alphabets or for example Chinese characters.

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kwhitefoot 2654 days ago
> computer code is always in Latin/English script

No it isn't.

I'm working on an application now where many of the variable names use Norwegian specific characters and the bulk of the comments that I write are in Norwegian. Now that we have Unicode there is no reason why non-keyword text should be in English or in a Latin or Latin derived alphabet unless you expect people who can't read that language to maintain the code.

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lordnacho 2654 days ago
You can always count on HN to find the exceptions.

Do you have Norwegian standard libs for your application? Or is it just your business logic that's in Norwegian?

Fact is most of the code you find anywhere uses English keywords like "while" or "except", and the standard libs will use English names like "socket". The occasional non English code language is an oddity.

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