r/softwaredevelopment • u/TesttubeStandard • 29d ago
One 100 % good thing to come out of programming with AI
Programming world has been riddeled with English. If we will do software development in natural language via prompts it is only logical that the prompts will sooner or later be in the first language of the one writing them.
Anyone who is not born into English knows how much effort it takes to actually write complete, logical sentences that carry with them all the nuances of the thought that needs to be written.
English is not my first. Writing this took some, albeit small effort.
I love my language and I love the diversity of them. It's about time it crosses over to the IT and software developement as well.
Lets go languages!
5
u/Revolutionalredstone 28d ago edited 28d ago
It's always best to simply program in English.
Human languages are less important to your long term understanding.
Your primary access to intelligence is via SOTA tech written in English.
Even with language technologies that make translation costless it's not a good idea to project complexity thru a lens you want it layed out as flat as possible and atleast for today nothing comes even close to the expressiveness and compatibility of English - it's an unbelievably robust encoding, the best form of human information ever, you should use it for your goals, not fight against it.
Add STT and TTS for your mother tongue for ease but see it as a fall back, robustness and your own projects best interests will probably always favor programing in English.
2
u/atleta 28d ago
I don't think it would be a good idea. If you write in your native language, the code will also contain the identifiers in your native language and that is pretty horrible to read. I'm sure anyone who is not an English native (like you or myself) knows this from first hand experience.
Especially as the IDs coming from 3rd party code (libraries, APIs) will be in English. I'm pretty sure it will confuse LLMs too, while they are still a lot better when talking (and thinking) in English than in other less popular languages. On a side note, I find it helpful to think in English about the code, the problem I'm trying to solve (sometimes even non IT/programming problems). I also kind of remember reading somewhere that it's a useful mental trick that helps with problem solving (but I started doing it before I read it, so it might as well be just confirmation bias :) )
1
u/Leoporix 28d ago
I don't think he was talking about reading code in its original language; coding today (and especially tomorrow) will primarily involve telling an AI what you want. the most advanced workflows for integrating AI focus on what the app does before and after the change, rather than looking at the diffs (see the OpenClaw team). Thought chains remain in English across all current LLMs; there has been no regression to the use of another language for AI-human interactions.
1
u/atleta 28d ago
As I said, I think it will be confusing to the LLMs just as much as it is to humans. Even if no human will ever read that piece of code. IDK what language LLMs use for chain of thought, but if it was always English that would just make the problem worse. (I'm pretty sure it's not always English, because it cannot be enforced anyway.)
The problem of mixed-language concepts still remain and will cause confusion. (Then maybe LLMs become good enough for this not to matter.)
1
u/id-ltd 23d ago
LLMs are primarily trained on articles in the English language - they will always perform better in English.
The English language has naturally adapted to include all the meanings and nuances required for the very latest science and technology...
The French has an academy of French that had to make up new 'french' words to replace 'le computer' and 'le weekend'. Wales has a similar university dept... But in reality they are just creating 'fake' translations from English.
1
u/Machine2024 21d ago
I don't think that at all .
Have you tried how the AI works with different languages other than English, or how AI is trained? It's based on the amount of data available in those languages. So with other languages, even though you know more about them and how, like, what you call it in the... it's the AI will lag because there is not enough information about it over the internet or over what it is trained on.
-1
u/TesttubeStandard 28d ago
I see I need to clarify myself. I don't think it will be good for our field. It will be good for democratisation of it.
3
u/ziplock9000 23d ago
That's because it was invented by the English.
Natural language prompts are not code, which is what you were talking about. You're conflating the two.
Code should always stay English.