[poblano]

I agree this is probably a bad idea, but I still think the basic problem it's trying to solve is a real one.

A less hack-y solution might be for new languages to start incorporating more languages in their choices of keywords and class names.

Suppose someone were designing a new language (let's call it Foolang), and these were some of the keywords:

* publico, privado, protegido (access specifiers in Spanish)

* eetha/akhra (if/else in Arabic)

* zhen/jia (true/false in Mandarin)

I think this would be an interesting experiment. It would have to be a compelling language in its own right though.

[TazeTSchnitzel]

I agree that it's a basic problem. There's a language using Japanese keywords out there: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind and a few others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-English-based_programming_l...

Still, a language monoculture is more convenient for most programmers. As an English-speaking programmer, I'd hate to have to maintain, say, Chinese code.

[zokier]

I think the language constructs/keywords are the "easy" part. But how do you translate identifiers, comments and other "textual" content automatically?

[poblano]

You're right. There isn't really an easy solution to this.