--- Adam Bower <abower@thebowery.co.uk> wrote:
On Mon, 16 Jul 2001, Andrew Savory wrote:
IMO, written English is no more difficult to master than any programming langauge, except that one doesn't need to compile English... Clear communication is no less important, however, and going public on a web site *requires* that it be at least close to correct.
Sorry, but I don't agree. Written English is a heck of a lot harder to master than programming. Most programming languages have a right and a wrong way: ie, black and white, works or doesn't. They have a very limited syntax and often there are many easily accessible books written on how to program in a given language.
I disagree :-) I have seen how perl scripts can be (and are) written, I find english is far easier for me than programming. Of course I am crap at both though....
But how long have you been using english and how loong for perl? Does german make any sense? what about french? All languages are the same, they have a syntax, and a vocabulary, we just use different terms for them in computing and spoken english. We then have things like verbs and nouns etc.. or operators, properties and objects?
I do of course agree that people should make more of an effort with their use of the language, but I'd take lucid, clear writing with errors over perfectly constructed grammatically correct pigswill any day ;-) Me too!
Anyway I don't want to get drawn further into this debate, as I know that you will hear me start to rant about education!
In for a penny if for a pound. Why are we taugh shapespear? We are taught in english to read books and we study books, but the books we are given to read are usually boring and do not appeal to people, The books we had in the library were so bad they put me off reading till I left school and read about 150 books in the first year of work! Education, and society are a big rpoblem and I would say that the lack of religion doesn't help. Having said that I think most of religion is bollocks and not as founded on fact. And can lead to kids being taught creation theory instead of darwinism! Religion originally started as a set of rules for people to follow, i.e. Tao Te Ching (I think thats how its spelt) I would recommend everyone on list reads the Tao of pooh and te of piglet. Thanks D PS I am working through your list of corrections Laurie.
Adam -- This message is Copyleft - all rights reversed Adam
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