http://ayende.comAyende @ RahienCopyright (C) Ayende Rahien 2004 - 2021 (c) 202660Touche, yep exactly an issue with the language it can be interpreted both ways;) Although I could have probably spent more time and clarified the sentence. The key point is that we shouldn't have to. But that is what gives English some of its power, it is adaptable. It is a Bastardized language that has borrowed rules from many different languages, while standardizing on a few. I also will say I am no expert in the English language. I find it to be the most illogical pursuit of my life especially after being in a car bike accident and basically starting over on the English language in the 8th grade. I do find that I have more interest after learning a bit of Russian, German, and a couple of other languages in review. It interested me that in Primarily English First countries that there is a Higher level of illiteracy in comparison to countries where the Language is primarily Phonetic. Ok enough on that topic:) Speaking of a primarily Natural Language computer language, COBOL would be one of the early ones. In a fairly domain specific way. http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment9http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment9Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:52:01 GMTJust to show how bad English is: Douglas, did you mean that your ex-wife is now your step daughter? That's just too weird! http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment8http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment8Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:27:29 GMTyeah, let's just go back to COBOL http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment7http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment7Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:28:38 GMTI did assume that, and I was only joking around because I remembered you had just recently used the same phrase. Having said that, even with existing infrastructure, could you have something production ready in an hour? http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment6http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment6Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:04:37 GMTEnglish is horrible in so many ways. But since it has such lack rules and allows spelling from what is it now? 10 different languages. Took on the French non phonetic spelling conventions and then the Latin alphabet:) Not to mention that there hasn't been spelling reform since the first dictionaries came out. Oh, well this foray started when I started teaching my now ex wife and step daughter English from a Russian background. kinda weird explaining to my wife why People is spell the way it is. ;) So to relate to the post. English is a Horrible language to write instructions in, agreed one hundred percent. http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment5http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment5Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:21:45 GMTben, Pay careful attention to what I said. What I said was that given the right infrastructure, you could create such a DSL in less than an hour http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment4http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment4Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:30:17 GMTApple languages are horrible, have you ever tried Objective-C? http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment3http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment3Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:18:30 GMTI agree with that. And in my opinion, there is a psychological side of things. If the ones that change the DSL does not have knowledge on programming they will find challenging and enjoyable to understand the small logic involved in a DS. They will have to put their logic in practice as opposed to use natural language where there is a lack of structure and different things with same meaning. Think about Excel Macros. VBA is in my opinion a DSL that works near the business user. It's not plain english (well one can argue that:) and is popular enough among end users. Matias http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment2http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment2Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:20:52 GMTTime to start keeping track of all the things you can do in "under an hour". Then I can try and hire you to do them all for me in one day ;) Actually, I'll let Google keep track http://tinyurl.com/5s8wk4 http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment1http://ayende.com/3588/the-search-for-the-natural-language#comment1Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:51:05 GMT