Embedded programming usually solo?

It may... if your native language is English. For most of us, it is not. We silly forigners who bad English speek, find may more easier commenting in our own tongue.

The choice of comment language not an obvious one. There are several factors which should be taken into account:

- which language does the programmer master best: almost all people have a language which they master better than any other language. Using this language generally produces more fluent text.

- who is going to read the comment: if the comments are strictly for internal use, they can be written in the same language as all internal memos, etc. If the comments are part of the user documentation, then the language of the user documentation dictates the choice.

- which language can be written: languages using non-latin alphabets may require severe translitteration abuse before they can be embedded into source code

So, sometimes, it is not completely stupid to use non-English variables and comments.

What comes to the language of the programming language itself, it does not really matter. Learning some dozens of nonsense codewords should not be a problem for anyone, be it printf(), écritf(), skrivf(), kirjoitaf(), schreibef() or whatever. (Even though my English vocabulary was a bit odd in the beginning, as I spoke Basic before English :)

- Ville

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Ville Voipio, Dr.Tech., M.Sc. (EE)
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Ville Voipio
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Oh, I hope noone thought I was being Englishist in my comment. Commenting code in the native language of the users (code users rather than end users) is the only sensible thing to do. I only meant that the mix of two languages in one "document" looks a bit odd!

Yes, I agree entirely.

Sorry, I don't know how to get an acute accent over an "e" on my keyboard, that's why I used ecritf(). Anyway, I also don't know the french for "format", which is why I left the "f" alone, although I'd hesitate a guess it's "format"??

--
Trevor Barton
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Trevor Barton

Funny. I am Dutch, but I always comment my code in English. When I'm programming, my mind seems to be set to English because the programming language or asm mnemonics are all English. Even when I write a manual for a new product, the first version is in English and the Dutch version a translation of the first....

Meindert

Reply to
Meindert Sprang

a

So do I. Commenting in Finnish will have problems with characters missing in the English character set. The same applies for variable names in languages other than English.

If the code will ever be destined for international use, English is practically the only sensible option (sorry, mes amis en France, the time of French as an international universal language is over - it time was 100 yeras ago).

Tauno Voipio tauno voipio @ iki fi

Reply to
Tauno Voipio

in

languages

This brings back a memory from over 20 years ago. I had to find a bug in some software written in PL/M, running on a PDP-11. It controlled a Nokia machine and the software was commented in ..... Finnish. Brr, what a horrible language ;-)

Meindert

Reply to
Meindert Sprang

The official internal language in Nokia is English, which was sort of a surprise to me at first. But the attitude tends to be "no one is ever going to bother learning our language, so we'll happily learn theirs", which just goes to show how far away Finland is from France. So of course, the code is all commented in English for the most part.

--
Darin Johnson
    "Floyd here now!"
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Darin Johnson

Well, I was referring to some code from over 20 years ago. They probably changed the policy.

Meindert

Reply to
Meindert Sprang

At least I did not. And I have to admit I do comment my code in English, even when noone else is going to see the code. And I don't have anything against English as the "Lingua Franca" in technology. English does not suffer from any extremely complicated grammar, and getting started is simple. It is also socially acceptable to speak bad English...

I just wanted to point out there are situations where commenting in something else than English may be justified.

I do agree. When I first saw a local programming coursebook, I thought it looked extremely funny. All variables, all comments were in Finnish.

However, there seems to be some sort of "maximum difficulty constant" in education: the sum of lingual difficulties and topical difficulties must not exceed some certain constant. So, if the topic is difficult, the language must be as easy. Programming is difficult at first, so the language must be the students' native language (if possible).

But, yes, the world would be much simpler place if we all spoke the same language :)

- Ville

--
Ville Voipio, Dr.Tech., M.Sc. (EE)
Reply to
Ville Voipio

... snip ...

Not if you are incapable of making your basic wants known in some other language :-)

This sub-thread began when somebody was proposing translating key words, rather than comments. The actual discussion makes more sense than that.

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Chuck F (cbfalconer@yahoo.com) (cbfalconer@worldnet.att.net)
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CBFalconer

"Trevor Barton" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@sheep.isotek.co.uk...

And there would be no obfuscated C contests...

All you need is a header file containing:

#define pour for #define ecritf printf #define sortie exit

etc...

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Thanks, Frank.
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Reply to
Frank Bemelman

But which language would that be?

I read a book in recent years that made a case for English becoming somewhat universal, not because of its superiority, but due to it not being the native language of that hated other group (where "hated other group" can be anybody else).

Reply to
Everett M. Greene

But the problem is that English is the native language of two widely hated countries, the UK and US.

This is a good reason to make Finnish the official world language :-) No one will ever claim it's an imperialist language. There are too many "L"s though for native Japanese speakers (I want to hear one say "illallinen", and there would be an epidemic of carpal tunnel syndrome from having to type the long words. Esperanto could work, but it's far too easy.

--
Darin Johnson
    "You used to be big."
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Reply to
Darin Johnson

The solution is simple, and minimizes disturbance. Use Canadian.

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Chuck F (cbfalconer@yahoo.com) (cbfalconer@worldnet.att.net)
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Reply to
CBFalconer

Naw, it's too similar to French.

--
Darin Johnson
    My shoes are too tight, and I have forgotten how to dance -- Babylon 5
Reply to
Darin Johnson

Pointing and grunting works pretty well in most parts.

- Ville

--
Ville Voipio, Dr.Tech., M.Sc. (EE)
Reply to
Ville Voipio

A follow-on to my original question...

Where would one find the kind of embedded projects that call for just one software guy? (I don't mean "where" in the geographical sense, but in a more general sense. For example, are there certain sectors (e.g. military, consumer electronics, etc) or certain companies that tend to have the smaller projects that need only one programmer?)

-- Mark Abbott

Reply to
Mark Abbott

Eh? ;-)

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Linux Home Automation         Neil Cherry        ncherry@comcast.net
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Reply to
Neil Cherry

You forgot handwaving.

"OK" seems to be universally understood.

Reply to
Everett M. Greene

My devious original point was that it is NOT socially acceptable for native English speakers to speak bad English. For suitable regional variations of 'bad'.

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Chuck F (cbfalconer@yahoo.com) (cbfalconer@worldnet.att.net)
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Reply to
CBFalconer

I think that maybe the toy industry would be your target there. I believe one of our otherposters knows more about that though.

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Paul E. Bennett

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