jayathra

That’s impressive. But do you think your experience is typical or more of an exception?

What if coding was built from the ground up to be script-agnostic—where people didn’t need to 'learn English on the side' at all?

If a Finnish speaker could code in Finnish while collaborating with a Japanese speaker coding in Japanese — and the system translated everything seamlessly — do you think that would increase access to programming without fragmenting the codebase?

For Latin-based language speakers like Spanish, Italian, or French, learning programming in English might not be a huge hurdle. But for people whose native languages use completely different scripts (Chinese, Arabic, Sinhala, etc.), the challenge is much greater.

You mentioned that you rarely search for programming-related content in Spanish. Do you think that’s because English is simply better suited for programming, or is it more about the lack of high-quality programming resources in Spanish?

If programming had built-in support for multiple scripts while keeping a universal structure, do you think more people would use resources in their native language?

What do you think is a more realistic solution? Should we focus on improving translations for documentation and learning materials, or is there a way to make programming itself less dependent on a single language?

Thanks for sharing this! The idea of removing text from programming languages is really interesting, especially for making coding more accessible to people with different language backgrounds.

The paper you linked explores text-free programming through visual programming tools, which is one possible solution. But what do you think about making existing text-based languages, like Python or JavaScript, script-agnostic instead of moving entirely to visual coding?

Would love to hear your thoughts on whether a hybrid approach — where code can be written in any script but still remains text-based — could work.

APL and possibly Erlang aren’t based on English, yet they never became the global standard.

Do you think it was because of technical reasons, or was it just easier for English-based languages (C, Python, JavaScript) to spread globally? If we designed a non-English programming system today, do you think it would actually gain adoption?

Localizing everything could make collaboration harder if different people refer to the same function by different names.

But what if we had a system where people wrote code in their native script, and it automatically translated into a universal format when shared? Would that help keep things accessible while maintaining collaboration?

That’s amazing! I have visited certain parts of the world where the access to resources are minimal in terms of learning English. I don't know the specifics of your story/background but especially when the native language doesn't involve the Latin alphabet at all, the learning curve is steeper. A fluent English speaker can begin coding immediately, while a non-English speaker has to learn two languages at once.

Even if basic materials exist in other languages, most advanced documentation, debugging tools, and libraries remain in English. Do you think that creates a significant disadvantage for non-English speakers?

I love the idea of a universal intermediate language (IL) with region-specific front-ends—that could be a great way to make programming more accessible without fragmenting the ecosystem.

But with AI handling more code generation, how important will it be for people to truly understand the underlying code? Do you think AI will make coding more of a black box, or will there always be value in knowing how things work under the hood?

Music is a great comparison—eastern music notation exists in native scripts, and western pieces can be translated into it. Could programming work the same way, where the structure remains universal, but the notation adapts to different languages?

ASCII and a US keyboard do keep things simple. But given that modern systems already support Unicode everywhere (from websites to filenames), do you think the complexity argument still holds today?

Do you think we’ll always be stuck in this cycle, or is it possible to design programming languages that aren’t tied to any one language, preventing this issue in the future?

But do you think they failed because they were localized per country, rather than designed for global compatibility from the start?

Silent conversions could definitely be messy, but what if there were a standardized system that allowed programming in any script while keeping everything interoperable? Could that avoid the pitfalls of past localized languages?

English is the global standard now, and that’s shaped programming as well. But what happens if, in the future, another language (like Hindi or Mandarin) becomes dominant? Would the programming world have to shift again?

If programming were script-agnostic from the start, we wouldn’t have to constantly adapt to shifting global languages. Instead of relying on English or any single language, shouldn’t we explore ways to make programming more accessible to all scripts from the ground up?

I’m curious—do you think learning English is equally easy for everyone? Many programmers come from regions where English education is either poor or expensive. If someone is highly logical but struggles with English, should that be a barrier to learning how to code? Also what was your level/accessibility to education of English before you learned it? Did you start from scratch? Did you know a language that shared a root language with English?

Exactly! Even in low-level programming like Assembly, the core instructions are still based on English. Do you think there’s a way to design programming languages that don’t rely on English at all—not just in keywords, but in how concepts are structured?

I see your point - having a global language certainly helps with knowledge transfer, and English has become that standard for programming. But is learning English really 'not a big deal' for everyone? For someone with limited access to quality English education, it could take years before they’re comfortable enough to learn programming effectively. Meanwhile, a fluent English speaker can start coding right away.

Rather than fragmenting knowledge, what if we had a system that let people write and learn code in their native script, while still maintaining full compatibility with the existing programming ecosystem? Similar to how Unicode enables multiple languages on the web without breaking global communication. Do you think that could work?