[Sugar-devel] [IAEP] Sugar Digest 2012-09-18

[Bert Freudenberg]

On 2012-09-24, at 12:37, Bert Freudenberg <bert at freudenbergs.de> wrote:

> On 2012-09-24, at 01:40, James Cameron <quozl at laptop.org> wrote:
> 
>> On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 07:53:35PM -0300, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
>>> Paint activity was developed by a Brazilian team and a lot of variables
>>> had Portuguese names.
>>> Whit the time, we changed a lot, but there are a few pending.
>> 
>> It is irritating that we still store source code in linear text files
>> without built-in internationalisation.
>> 
>> As you change these names, they become far less useful to programmers
>> who use that language.
>> 
>> The development system would be more open and inclusive if there was a
>> way to keep variable names, and other text, in multiple languages.
>> 
>> I've seen nothing yet that achieves this.  It would require editor
>> application support.
> 
> 
> Tile-based programming systems like Etoys, Scratch, or Turtle Art make this a lot easier. They at least support switching the names of built-in functions and objects.
> 
> Translating user-defined names is harder, but not impossible. I don't know of any deployment-ready system, but there have been at least demos, e.g. the 2004 TranSqueak project (details below, though I couldn't find a PDF online).
> 
> - Bert -


PDF of this paper on the VPRI website:

	http://www.vpri.org/pdf/tr2004001_transqueak.pdf

More papers:

	http://vpri.org/html/writings.php

- Bert -