Language Adaptation

Some years ago I developed a software system which was based on the adaptation of core elements of the Squeak smalltalk system into Irish in such a way that all reserved words, were written in the Irish language. I began this process because I was designing an animation system for encouraging children to explore the Piverse, the transcendental world of numbers. This world is quite different from the ordinary world where numbers are treated simply as strings of digits, whereas in the Piverse, numbers are sounds, shapes and dynamic forms.

As it would happen I also began re-learning the Irish language after a long absence, much of which was taken up with a number of different computer languages, and one thing that always struck me was how far apart natural languages and programming languages are. One day I needed to develop a new class for a number. This was necessary because I needed to trap the arithmetic operations so that they could be displayed as a dynamic clickable animation, in other words a child could be practising a particular mental technique, and then checking against a similar animation. They could pause the animation at any time and find out from where a particular digit had emerged. Many other possibilities are obviously possible in this regard with music and sounds as well.

Any way I wrote the classes and they opened up a whole world of possibilities, which I eventually called language core programming. Which essentially meant that a software designer working deep in his own area could write software in his own native tongue, even his own very localised native dialect, and it would run on any properly equipped system in the world.

I have set up two blogs, Eireland to discuss topics in mainly English, and Banba to discuss topics in mainly Irish.

If you haven't done so you might like to leave a little comment, your interest in this project, and maybe something about your own area of interest. I would also suggest that you follow the mouse down the first post on the blog as this will give you an idea of where we're going.