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Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2019 23:16:43 +0200
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To: Michael Morris <tendoaki@gmail.com>
Cc: PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV][DISCUSSION] Multilingual PHP
From: benjamin.morel@gmail.com (Benjamin Morel)

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The problem with this approach is that while it may become more readable
for the native speaker, it becomes pretty much impossible to read for the
rest of the world.
Having one single syntax for everyone allows all programmers in the world
to share code. I can't imagine a world where I'd find a library based on
Russian PHP on GitHub, that I can't contribute to or even understand (I
probably wouldn't use it).
English has the huge advantage to be quite simple to learn for basic
purposes, and it has a limited alphabet, composed only of ASCII letters.

I'm not a native English speaker but have never been bothered by keywords
being called IF and THEN, even when reading BASIC books as a child before
taking any English course at school.

This may be harder for people having a native language with a different
alphabet, though.

- Ben


On Thu, 11 Apr 2019 at 22:32, Michael Morris <tendoaki@gmail.com> wrote:

> Submitted to the floor is a Wired article from 2 days ago I came across
>
>
> https://www.wired.com/story/coding-is-for-everyoneas-long-as-you-speak-en=
glish/
>
> The manual of PHP is translated into multiple languages - but what are th=
e
> development hurdles of the language itself being multilingual?
>
> From what I understand of the compiler - maybe not that much.  The langua=
ge
> requires an opening tag, so we could hook into that like this example for
> Japanese
>
> <?php[=E3=83=9E=E3=83=8B=E3=83=A5=E3=82=A2=E3=83=AB]
>
> A PHP opening tag with such a qualifier would change over all function
> names and reserved words. Could these would be set on a per file basis?
>
> The php.ini file could set the default language, the .htaccess file could
> also on per directory.
>
> I'll stop there cause I know there are problems I haven't thought of. And
> I'm not going to argue the syntax I just kicked out from the top of my he=
ad
> is the best either.
>
> But I think it's worth the effort to at least look into the problem.  Wir=
ed
> has a point - people learn to code faster when they are working with thei=
r
> own language. One of the stated goals of PHP's design has been
> accessibility so this seems to be appropriate.
>
> I yield the floor to those smarter and wiser than I.
>

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