Thread: Programming in foreign languages

Originally Posted by Govtcheez

Not the most interesting question in the world, I guess, but it's better than figuring out what the guy meant by "For each archivo in subcarpeta"

that means for each file in a sub folder

but I guess the guy put in that comment something like
por cada archivo en subcarpeta

and yes I would put my program in my native lenguage
because is the one that I understand at 100 %.Well and depends of my state of mood.

Originally Posted by Govtcheez

I'm really worried about is abbreviations where he uses part of a Spanish word and I can't figure out any meaning

You can ask me about the abbreviations and I would be glad to explain the meaning to you

> I wonder if there are compilers that use "native" keywords?

I was wondering the same thing.

LOL... you bet. Do you know the Excel language ? Not VBA, but the pseudo script where you can sum up columns and stuff. In a German Excel, it's translated. It's no longer IF, it's WENN ( German for if ) and so on. While it may be nice for Germans, can you imagine me sitting in front of an Excel sheet figuring out how the hell to sum up a column ? It's not SUM for sure. It's SUMME. WTF ? I am German, but how should I know what word those english commands were translated to ? For a programmer, this translation is a real pain in certain body parts.

I wrote our coding standards and all code is to be written in english. Comments are free, either in German or English but you have to chose one and stay with it for a project. I'd like it all in english, but not everyone here can write or even read english sufficiently.

Edit:
Oh, and Excel isn't even translated very well... because it just dawned on me that WENN is not the equivalent of IF. WENN means WHEN i.e. at a certain time. FALLS means IF.

>>> fun when the variables names don't have any meaning,

To make the point that there are no reserved words in Fortran, I once wrote a small program where all the variable names were, what in other languages would be keywords.

Code:

      IF(NE.EQ.EQ)THEN
           THEN = ELSE
      ELSE
           REAL = CHARACTER
           ELSE = END
      END IF

Slightly more fun would be to have variables names that do mean something, but not what they apprently mean.

Code:

int CharBuf;
char *RecordCount;

That kind of thing. In a nice complicated routine, creative use of that technique could be very confusing.

Or, like my predeccessor did, name them after friends.

int John;
char Hans;
char Peter[80];

And it was not a joke... not until I had to read and understand that piece of bs two years later...

> but I guess the guy put in that comment something like por cada archivo en subcarpeta

Nope, like I said, no comments. The code was "For each archivo in subcarpeta". I'm programming in VBA, not C.

> You can ask me about the abbreviations and I would be glad to explain the meaning to you

Thanks, but I think it'd be a lot easier to just ask the guy who wrote it.

> Oh, and Excel isn't even translated very well... because it just dawned on me that WENN is not the equivalent of IF. WENN means WHEN i.e. at a certain time. FALLS means IF.

We were always taught that "wenn" could be used as "if" in certain situations. They said it pretty much meant "whenever", so it could be used sometimes. I seriously doubt you know more about German than my German teacher just because you live there

Wenn means when. It's asking for or waiting for a time. There is no doubt that it will happen. Only when
Falls means if. It's checking for a certain condition to come true. It doesn't have to come true however.

Both can be used in a normal conversation and 99.99% of Germans will either not care or maybe even not know better. But for a language that probably has less than 255 words I would have expected some grammar Nazis double checking it

What about "ob"? I seem to remember that could be used as "if" in some situations, too.

Indeed, "ob" would be translated as "if", too. I don't think I want to explain when "ob" is used instead of "falls" or "wenn"... I'm soooo glad I learned German unconsciously. English is easy, at least you guys have rules and a finite number of exceptions. We have a ton of exceptions and once in a while we have a consistent rule as an exception.

I remember I learned english irregular verbs in school. I wonder what you do in German lessons, I'm unable to find a regular German verb

Anyone know what "tamanio" means? I checked babelfish, where it was helpfully translated as "tamanio", and then I searched google. The first page that came up that was actually in English was this site, so I think it was meant to be.

edit: That can be our new slogan: "Cprogramming.com - Your 16th source on google for 'tamanio'"

edit2: It means size. Just an fyi.

Originally Posted by Govtcheez

Anyone know what "tamanio" means? I checked babelfish, where it was helpfully translated as "tamanio", and then I searched google. The first page that came up that was actually in English was this site, so I think it was meant to be.

edit: That can be our new slogan: "Cprogramming.com - Your 16th source on google for 'tamanio'"

edit2: It means size. Just an fyi.

TamaÑo means size, He forgot to put the Ñ or he has a keybard with out that letter, that happens all the time, you can put that letter pressing alt 1 6 5

edit: Ok I was thinking in a stremely case, yep it's better to ask him, but If you don't found him and you need that information I would give you the translation that word, ok if you have any other questions, I would be glad to help.

Just press ~ + n to get an ñ.