

Chinese Python: Translating a programming language (2008) - steveklabnik
http://reganmian.net/blog/2008/11/21/chinese-python-translating-a-programming-language/

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crazygringo
Very interesting.

When I lived in Brazil, I discovered that all the graphic designers I knew ran
Photoshop in English, instead of Portuguese.

It seemed so odd. Why? Well, it turns out that most menu or interface commands
aren't "normal" language at all -- the meaning of "layer" or "unsharp" or
"spherize", or the difference between "image size" and "canvas size" \-- so
many of these are domain-specific, or Photoshop-specific, and won't make a lot
of sense to any regular English speaker at all.

And since so many tutorials, etc., are all in English, it just makes sense to
use Photoshop in English. Otherwise, you pull up the Portuguese menu and try
to guess how "image size" and "canvas size" might have been translated, and
it's just a huge headache.

I'd become fluent in Portuguese myself, my OS was in Portuguese, my browser
was in Portuguese... but when I opened up Photoshop in Portuguese, they were
right -- I was totally lost.

So while it's _possible_ to translate programming languages, I'm not sure it's
actually beneficial too. (Although it certainly makes sense for variables to
have "local" names.)

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deckiedan
Very cool! :-) I found it interesting how the surrounding red boxes around
variable names made them each stand out clearly, where separation was, etc.

