[~ot] why is programming so fun?

[BCS]

Reply to Chris,

> Yigal Chripun wrote:
> 
>> PS - you should read about the Sapir conjecture in wikipedia to see
>> how culture and language influence the way we think.
>> 
> Sapir-Whorf is not well thought of these days. People invent terms for
> things as necessary, and grammar is generally too primitive to convey
> significant biases. (Which is fine; grammar is supposed to be
> primitive.)
> 
> It's possible that our brains have advanced beyond the capacity of our
> current languages and that they are restricting us somehow, but if so,
> it's almost certainly an issue common to all humans and all languages.
> But given that languages have emerged spontaneously just about every
> time a group of humans got together without an existing language, I'm
> strongly inclined to say that any limitations we experience are due to
> our brains rather than our languages.
> 

I didn't read it in detail but the 100,000 foot overview seem to have merit 
to me. I known for instance that languages group concepts differently, in 
English a device for telling time and a device for displaying some mesured 
value are different concepts. In finish IIRC they are the same concept (or 
at least for the kind that are round with rotating hands). I once ran across 
a sign that had a picture of a pistol and said "no guns" and no "luger or 
revolvers" only, the first was in English but last was in Spanish. This leads 
me to assume that there the word pistol doesn't translate exactly into Spanish. 
What language you speak has, I'm sure, an effect on what comes to mind when 
a given word is used.