The dominance of English in programming languages has historical, cultural and technical roots, which go back to the very origins of information technology. To fully understand the reason for this prevalence, it is useful to trace a brief historical overview of the first programming language ever created and used.
Although historically Assembly may be considered the first programming language, in reality something similar existed even before.
Before Assembly: The Algorithm for the Analytical Engine
Before the emergence of assembly, there was another kind of “programming language”, although very different from what we now conceive of as such. It is the Algorithm for the Analytical Engine, conceived by Ada Lovelace for the Analytical Engine of Charles Babbage.
The Analytical Engine, designed by Babbage in the 1830s, is considered the forerunner of modern computers, despite the fact that it was never fully built. It was a mechanical device designed to perform complex calculations, and its operating principles anticipated many of the concepts behind digital computers.
Ada Lovelace, British mathematician and writer, was the first to recognize the potential of this machine beyond simply performing numerical calculations. Lovelace imagined that the Analytical Engine could manipulate symbols and, given an appropriate sequence of instructions, or “program”, could produce results of any type of content.
The “programs” that Lovelace wrote for the Analytical Engine were not in English or any other human language. Instead, they were sequences of operations to be performed on the machine, represented as flow charts or tables. These “programs” were written in a language the machine could understand, based on the machine’s own mathematical and mechanical principles.
Lovelace’s work represents an important precursor of the concept of programming. While his programs weren’t written in a human language like English, they represent an important first step toward the idea of what real programming languages would be after, a way of telling a machine what to do.
Programming languages, comes assembly
In the first half of the 20th century, with the advent of the first computers, the primary way of communicating with these machines was via binary or hexadecimal codes, a practice that required profound technical knowledge and left no room for error. However, in 1949, Maurice Wilkes introduced the idea of using human-readable symbols to represent machine instructions.
This led to the creation of the very first programming language, the programming language of programming languages (literally), known as assembly.
Assembly was not a language like today’s programming languages; rather, it was a way of simplifying computer programming by mapping the low-level operations of a machine into understandable symbols. It wasn’t even in the English language as we understand it today. Instead, he used abbreviations and symbols to represent machine operations.
For example, an Assembly instruction to add two numbers might be “ADD A, B”.
From small English words to more elaborate English words, the arrival of Fortran
The first modern high-level programming language was Fortran, developed by IBM in 1957. Fortran was designed to be closer to human language than Assembly. To do this, he used English words like “IF”, “THEN”, “ELSE” and “END” to represent control structures: this made programming more accessible to a wider audience.
Fortran was created in the United States, which was a major computer development center at the time.
Since English was the primary language of the United States, it was only natural that Fortran should be written in English: this trend has continued in all subsequent programming languages, such as COBOL, ALGOL, C, C++, Java, Python and many others .
Why English and not other languages in programming languages?
There are several reasons why English has remained the dominant language in programming languages: First of all, English is often considered the lingua franca of science and technology. This means that developers all over the world are often already able to understand technical English.
Furthermore, the use of English makes programming languages universal: a programmer in China, for example, can easily work on a project initially written by a programmer in France, because they both use the same English-based programming language. in case everyone only knows their own language and not English it would become much more difficult to communicate with each other.
There was an attempt to create a European language, theEsperantobut that attempt was never successful, but that’s another story.
Are there any programming languages that use languages other than the English language?
Without mincing words: yes.
Although English is by far the most used language in programming, there have been a few examples of programming languages created in other languages.
For example, a programming language called “日本語プログラミング言語” (Nihongo Puroguramingu Gengo), which means “Japanese programming language”: this language uses kanji, hiragana and katakana characters instead of English keywords.
Another example is the programming language “KIDNAPP“, developed in the Soviet Union for use in education: this language uses Russian keywords instead of English.
Even the programming languageFjolnir” of Iceland, named after a character from Norse mythology, uses Icelandic keywords.
Despite these interesting experiments, these languages have not become widely adopted or used outside their home regions. This is largely due to the reasons mentioned above: English has become the de facto standard in programming, and using an English programming language makes code more accessible to a global audience.
In addition, the development of libraries, frameworks and support tools is predominantly in English, which makes it harder for non-English languages to compete. However, the existence of these programming languages demonstrates the versatility of programming as a means of expression and the ability to adapt code to different languages and cultures.
Are there programming languages in Italian?
With regard to programming in the Italian language, there are no standardized and widely used programming languages that make use of Italian keywords. Most Italian programmers use standard programming languages like Python, JavaScript, C++ or Java, which are based on English.
This does not mean that there are no programming languages in Italian at all. Some developers and enthusiasts have created programming languages or variants of existing languages with Italian keywords for educational purposes or as experiments. These languages, however, are rare and not commonly used in professional contexts.
One of these languages is the “Italian Pseudocode”, a didactic language used to teach the fundamental concepts of programming; It uses Italian keywords and has a simple syntax, making it a useful tool for students starting to code.
These examples demonstrate that despite the dominance of English, programming can be adapted to different languages and cultural contexts. However, the widespread use of these languages is limited by the fact that much of the programming documentation, tools, and resources are in English. Learning English therefore remains a valuable skill for anyone who wants to become a programmer.
RPG Maker is technically a curious exception
It is true that RPGMaker, a video game development platform, represents an interesting case when it comes to programming in the Italian language. This tool provides a user interface translated into several languages, including Italian, and allows you to create games through a system of “events” and “conditions” that are very reminiscent of a programming language.
RPG Maker uses a form of visual pseudocode to allow users to define game logic. Users can create “events”, which represent things that happen in the game, and “conditions”, which determine when and how these events occur: These constructs can be combined to create complex behaviors, just like in a programming language.
For example, an event in RPG Maker might be “when the player enters a room”, and a condition might be “if the player has the key”. This pseudocode could be translated into Italian as “when the player enters a room, if he has the key, then open the door”.
While RPG Maker isn’t a programming language in the traditional sense, represents an important introduction to programming for many people, especially for those who speak languages other than English.
Rpg Maker, in fact, offers an accessible and visual way to learn the fundamental concepts of programming, such as control flow and conditional logic, in a fun and creative context.
In conclusion
In conclusion, the predominance of English in programming languages is the result of a combination of historical, technical and cultural factors and the global nature of computing requires a common language, and English has assumed this role for historical reasons of computer development.
Although English is the predominant language, there are examples of programming languages in other languages, including Italian.
These languages, while rare and not widely adopted, demonstrate the flexibility and adaptability of programming. Tools like RPG Maker also show how programming concepts can be made accessible to non-English speakers.
Finally, it is important to underline that, While proficiency in English is an advantage in computer science, it is not necessarily a prerequisite. Programmers can be effective by using the limited keywords of programming languages and by using translated learning resources and documentation.
The future of programming could see further linguistic diversification, especially as translation tools evolve and access to computing expands globally. Meanwhile, English will likely continue to play a central role in programming languages for the foreseeable future.
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