It's all about the curly brackets

[cosmolinguist]

ylloh2221: I like computer languages almost as much as I like regular languages, but for different reasons.
Sethew:

class Reply{

	public static void main(String[] args)
		{
			replyToHolly();
		}

	private static void replyToHolly()
	{
		System.out.println("Yes, computer languages are fun and interesting.
But I'm glad they are not used in casual conversation.  Though, it would be interesting
if someone could develop a lanugage that could be fairly clear to understand by both
humans and machines.");
	}
}

ylloh2221: That is so cool.
Sethew:*smiles* I thought you'd appreciate that.
Sethew: Probably more than anyone in my buddy list, including the csci folks.
ylloh2221: Because I'm the language geek?
Sethew: And a computer geek.
Sethew: (Whether you like it or not.)
ylloh2221: It seems to have no use other than liking your jokes, but I do enjoy the combination.

Comments

[jasonmichaels.livejournal.com]

You are fluent in C?

[cosmolinguist]

I'm not fluent in anything. He is. :-)

[cosmolinguist]

I hate it when the comments have those stupid error messages. It's especially bad this time, when it wrecked the coolness of your C code. You could post it again, if you're as worried about aesthetics as I seem. :-) (But I barely even know what C looks like, and its hard to see it like this. :-))

[setharoo.livejournal.com]

What tag did you use to format my above code? I tried both the "pre" and "code" tags and neither worked.

[cosmolinguist]

I used pre. And it's something I've used in comments before, so it's not like it can't work. I wonder what the deal is... Oh well, thanks for trying. You now have independent corroboration that it's Java and not C, anyway. :-)

[comradexavier.livejournal.com]

It's maybe a nit-picky point, but that's Java code, not C, although the syntax is similar. C doesn't have classes, and the prototype of the main() method is also a giveaway.

[karaksindru.livejournal.com]

hehe, that's great.

Reminds me of when I was talking to my friend fulvius in XML ...

[opticnerves.livejournal.com]

Eek! I suppose I'd be a selfish dick if I asked for an LJ-cut? This post doubles the width of my friends page.

[cosmolinguist]

No, you wouldn't be; I can cut it for you. I noticed that at first myself, but I added arbitrary "br" tags and it's been more fine since then, for me anyway.

[opticnerves.livejournal.com]

Many thank yous. I bow to your kindness.

[thewordnerd.livejournal.com]

If you're looking for a natural language easily parsable by both computers and humans then you should really check out lojban. Has some pretty cool concepts that I could probably jump into if I were a cunning linguist, but I'm not, so I'll have to play one on TV. :) Most of the words are like functions, though. They have anywhere from 1-5 arguments/places that can be filled in, or not, depending on what you're trying to say. There is no concept of "right," for instance; instead there's the concept of "to the right of x as x faces y," neatly avoiding the whole "To the right! To whose right, though?" Also, words like "book" have multiple places as well, so the "book" word/function actually means something like "a book titled A by B about C written in time period D for audience E" (I could be wrong about these, though, but they're more or less right.)

Cool stuff. I wish I had my lojban notes off my old, dying drive, or felt unlazy enough to look up some of this. :)

[tenbaset.livejournal.com]

I recall reading in a Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lojban) that it was a language that can distingush between "a broken light bulb" (a lightbulb that didn't work) and "a broken light bulb" (a lightbulb that emitted broken light.)

[cosmolinguist]

I didn't really mean I was intending to find such a language, but your comments in that regard are intriguing nonetheless. :-)

[tenbaset.livejournal.com]

The majority of all computer langugages seem to have only (or mainly) imperative forms - do this, do that, when this happens, do that.

Of course, when it comes to describing the elegance of the dynamic structures of programs, carved out of very thoughtstuff themsleves..

(except for FORTRAN. That's just ugly.)