> Hi Patty,
>
> As far as books are concerned, I actually prefer (programming) books in the
> English language. Although the Dutch don't do it as much as e.g. the French
> or the Germans, I hate it when technical terms are translated into Dutch in a
> somewhat artificial way ("Computer" is "Ordinateur" in French and "Rechner"
> in German [although "Computer" is also OK]; in Dutch it's simply "Computer")
> . It also makes it harder to find additional info on the internet. In
> addition, books in the English language are usually far cheaper than those in
> Dutch.
>
> As far as programming itself is concerned, I find it slightly more readable
> to use Dutch variable and function names. The risk of name clashes is also
> virtually absent! In my office we have a coding convention which states that
> Dutch names should be used. I must confess, however, I don't always
> consistently follow the convention. One example are getter and setter
> methods. It's just clearer to use 'get' and 'set' in the method name. When
> I download software, I use then 'as-is'. I might translate code snippets so
> it blends better with the rest of the code. If I send snippets to e.g. this
> mailing list, I usually translate the variable names + comments --only this
> time I was a bit lazy. ;-)
I tend to follow this piece of advice from PEP 8:
"Python coders from non-English speaking countries: please write your comments
in English, unless you are 120% sure that the code will never be read by people
who don't speak your language."
It's about comments, but applies just as well to variable names etc. If output
strings are eg Dutch, that's only the non-English part, and I might even make
use of some "translation" library (ie, English strings, which get replaced by
the appropriate strings upon a language settings. I know Django uses this
system).
It has such a huge advantage when, for example, asking questions on a list like
this. Albert-Jan may occasionally translate his problems, but there's no
guarantee that that wouldn't masquerade the actual problem.
I actually find it a bit weird that a (programming?) company has a coding
convention for non-English names; makes it harder if you want to hire non-Dutch
speaking employees, distribute software (& code) internationally etc.
Cheers,
Evert
>
> Cheers!!
> Albert-Jan
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine,
> public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health,
> what have the Romans ever done for us?
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
> From: Patty <pa...@cruzio.com>
> To: Albert-Jan Roskam <fo...@yahoo.com>; Python Mailing List
> <tutor@python.org>
> Sent: Fri, December 3, 2010 11:39:28 PM
> Subject: Re: [Tutor] Question on tkinter event binding
>
> Hello Albert-Jan:
> I am glad you made the comment below. I was fascinated with the fact that
> your code was partly in English/Python and also in Dutch. I am a linguist so
> have great interest in bilingualism. How does this work in practice? I mean
> as a programmer, with native language other than English, do you download or
> buy English language software programs and work with them as-is? Do you have
> translated tutorials to help you learn? If you had a Dutch language software
> program and created your own program so that everything is totally in Dutch,
> and you wanted to communicate with English language email group :) How would
> you do that? Or would you try and find a Dutch language resource?
>
> Besides that, I am definitely saving your code segments for the future.
> Thanks for sharing.
>
> Patty
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Albert-Jan Roskam
> To: Albert-Jan Roskam ; Python Mailing List
> Sent: Friday, December 03, 2010 12:18 PM
> Subject: Re: [Tutor] Question on tkinter event binding
>
> <stuff snipped>
>
> I'll paste the working code below. It's partially in Dutch, but hey, so is
> Guido van Rossem. ;-)
>
> <stuff snipped>
>
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