Re: Emacs user manual in Spanish

[Emanuel Berg <moasen@zoho.com>]

Jean-Christophe Helary wrote:

> Technology is after all only a symbolic
> representation of concepts not specific to
> any native language.

The symbolic representation, or "what things
are called" as I usually put it, is a huge part
of any activity. Programming, and all
technology, has shown this. If every country
should have its own system, if in Sweden an
integer would be written a "heltal", and so on,
this would cripple whole software system,
people would have to relearn everything they
every knew, all international standardization
attempts would fail, and communication on
mailing lists and Usenet groups as we know it
would end. This nightmarish scenario will
luckily never happen.

It might be heartbreaking to some people that
English attained the status as the completely
dominating language in technology and
international exchange. But it is a fact.
And not a fluke. England was first with the
industrial revolution and then the USA peaking
its manufacturing empire in the 50s and 60s.
None of computing would have been the same
without the Anglophone world.

It might also be some properties of the
language itself, especially the ability to just
stack nouns to add properties, which isn't
around in every language.

Actually, the French did much to promote their
own systems and give them widespread use.
Like the metric system which was adopted in
Sweden in 1878. The French also have an
industrial standard, SI, or the "Système
international", which is ironic as they are the
only ones using it. In Sweden, for example, we
use the German industrial standard, or DIN.

The reason I tell all this is to illustrate how
there have always been competition between
nations, languages, and systems. And at least
in terms of computers, since several decades
a very clear winner has emerged, namely
English. To not acknowledge this, as a computer
or tech person, is to do yourself
a big injustice.

Luckily, again, this process is impossible to
stop. Young people all over the world use
technology more than ever and a bi-product of
this is their fluency in English. Very soon, no
one will have to worry about translating the
Emacs manual because no one will ask for
anything but the real deal.

Like I said, deal with it.

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573