oh, easier, for sure.
mainstream programming languages are based on english terms, so if you know english already, a lot of programming syntax is already pretty self-explanatory, like “variable”, “print”, “if - then”, “while”, and “for (each)”. that’s really most you need when it comes to logic.
even easier if you already knew a programming language beforehand.
Way easier, learning a language to be able to read, listen and be understood when speaking is very hard, learning a language to be able to speak and also sound normal doing it is years worth of everyday practice
In contrast, if you really try you can have a good understanding of a programming language within a month, maybe sooner if it’s not your first programming language
Learning any spoken language is way harder.
I think if you can already program in a scripting language then learning another scripting language is relatively easy as you already know the concepts.
Even switching between more different languages say low level assembler and c++ should be doable.
Switching from English to Mandarin is allegedly quite hard, but I’ve always struggled with learning new languages
As an immigrant who had to learn English (and a very small amount of French) and also programming languages, programming languages are much, much easier. You don’t have to deal with tenses or conjugation, you don’t have to learn pronounciation rules because most things you express in programming is not directly pronouncable, there isn’t a million weird syntax and spelling exceptions that you just have to memorize, and you don’t have this disparity between formal and casual language. Learning technical or literary writing is even more complex.
Computer science as a whole is in my opinion more like learning a language. Once you know the fundamental concepts of computation, different programming languages are more like dialects than full languages.
Expanding on everything you mentioned…
Programming languages must be structured (otherwise, compilers and interpreters couldn’t parse them).
Natural languages try to have structure, but introduce so many exceptions, that it creates a higher cognitive load to remember (but it makes speeches/written works more interesting).
Learning the language – easier. Writing good software – harder.
It depends on what level of competency you’re expecting. If we count “able to use professionally” I’d say learning a human language take longer/is harder?
“professionally” requires having a job, so that is very hard rn. (Someone hire me)
Easier, way easier.
I’m learning Chinese but I can barely communicate. If I spent this time on a programming language I’d have learnt 5 of them by now.
definitely easier, but i helps if you know the language that the programming language is targetted to.
python, for example, was created in the netherlands, but it’s definately written for english speakers.
Does anybody have examples of popular programming languages that are not targeted to English?
Wenyan is an ancient Chinese programming language. I had a lot of fun coding with it.
Much easier because you need to learn a lot less vocab and grammar.
but harder because u have to give a very very detailed instructions instead of just saying what you want.
sudo make me a sandwichSuccess, you are a sandwich now!
What a terribly designed project if even compilation requires sudo. These “sandwich” maintainers don’t know what they’re doing.
I think the first one may be comparable, but for subsequent languages I think programming is much easier.
Granted, I only know one language that works with people, and have worked in dozens of programming languages over the years.
Not comparable, the “language” part of programming language is more an analogy for human-machine programming interface. It’s an abstraction for logicical instructions and not comparable to human-to-human communication IMHO
oh my god. i’m so excited right now. i majored in Computer Linguistics and Philosophy in college. i have a degree in exactly this. so… a computer programming language (PL) is a dialectic set of commands that can be composed and then compiled into machine langauge (ML) and interpretted by the computer into manipulations on a data structure. the primary goal of a PL is to facilitate human to human communication about what the program’s ML will do. there has only ever been one serious attempt to create a PL with the breadth of expresson of human language (HL) through Perl. this has generally been found to be a bad idea.
however, Perl revealed still addressed some very serious issues in computer linguistics that are starting to be addressed now 30 years later. the biggest success story to come out of Perl is Ruby. see the problem in computer liguistics is that almost all of the PLs in any kind of use are structured around Germanic, Italic, and Ruthenic grammars. this is especially damaging for people whose people have been opressed by speakers of these languages. there’s been a burgeoning movement to structure at least SOME PLs around native languages in Siberia, Africa, southeast Asia, and North America, especially languages that are at risk of total elimination like Lakota, Lomavren, and Ongota. unfortunately we also have to confront the colonial economic forces that have been strangling these languages as no boss wants code written for business in a PL structured around a critically endangered language
TLDR: you’re absolutely right to summarize things how you have, but the proplems at play are WAY more interesting imo
woah, legitimately interesting insights, saved your comment ^w^
hooray! learning about the abolition of poverty through the framework of making computers go beep boop wasn’t a total waste of time!
With human languages, we are trying to communicate with each other. Programming languages don’t do that.
I’d say you’re trying to compare apples and oranges. They’re both called languages but their differences dwarf their similarities.
Once you learn one programming language, learning other ones is easier, because now you know how to program, which in many ways is the hard part, and distinct from the languages themselves.
I feel like assuming you already know at least one programming language it’s a lot easier to pick up another one then it is to learn another language. But for the first one, I agree with others that it’s like comparing appels to oranges.
Learning to code is way different than learning a language
Much easier. Learning a programming language is just a small part of learning to code and it doesn’t take much effort at all.
I personally found it easier but this is anecdotal
