OT: Is there a more English-like Programming language than Transcript?

Martin Baxter mb.ur at harbourhosting.co.uk
Wed Aug 16 04:12:59 EDT 2006


Bridger Maxwell wrote:
> Hey,
>  I was just getting the Revolution update and I happened to notice that on
> one of the little info screens it displays as it installs it says, "You
> don't have to have a degree in programming to develop in Revolution.
> Revolution uses an easy to understand English-based language also called
> Revolution."  That sounds pretty official that the language is no longer
> called "Transcipt" anymore by the people at Runrev.  (Realize that I was
> paraphrasing a little except for the sentence "language also called
> Revolution" because I don't have a photographic memory).
> 
>  TTFN
>    Bridger

Oh it's official all right, but the sentence you quote serves to 
highlight the linguistic folly of the move. "The boards are joined 
together using a tool called 'hammer' which drives in metal pins also 
called 'hammer'".

I recall that in the 1990's Apple decided that it would discourage 
customers from calling their computers "Mac" or "Macintosh" and instead 
dictated that they should in future be referred to as "Apple Macintosh" 
or "AppleMac". This was actually adopted by a minority of users, and is 
occasionally still seen today. I regard it as evidence of the date at 
which those people started using the platform.

Apple has moved on though. The marketing argument was no doubt sound on 
its own terms, but why waste your energy pushing a pea uphill with a 
pointed stick?

Around here, when town planners build a new open space, they usually 
build footpaths around the periphery of the grassy area, it looks nice 
on the renderings and models probably. To the planners' surprise, people 
end up walking across the grass, because that is the shortest route 
between the access points. This wears a track across the grass. Sooner 
or later, the town council gives in and paves the natural track.

As an on-and-off-musician, with some history of naming bands as well as 
creative projects in general, I would say that a name people are 
unembarrassed to include in conversation is many times more valuable 
than a name that makes people feel silly or awkward when they say it.

how *do* you pronounce "postgres"?

Martin Baxter



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