Comment by ethbr1
7 months ago
> Using English, instead of C, to get a computer to do something doesn't turn you into a beaurocrat any more than using Python or Javascript instead does.
If one uses English in as precise a way as one crafts code, sure.
Most people do not (cannot?) use English that precisely.
There's little technical difference between using English and using code to create...
... but there is a huge difference on the other side of the keyboard, as lots of people know English, including people who aren't used to fully thinking through a problem and tackling all the corner cases.
> Most people do not (cannot?) use English that precisely.
No one can, which is why any place human interaction needs anything anywhere close to the determinancy of code, normal natural langauge is abandoned for domain-specific constructed languages built from pieces of natural language with meanings crafted especially for the particular domain as the interface language between the people (and often formalized domain-specific human-to-human communication protocols with specs as detailed as you’d see from the IETF.)
I gotta say, I love how you use english to perfectly demonstrate how imprecise english is without pre-understood context to disambiguate meaning.