Natural vs National in R signon banner? - R-devel

Thu, Aug 31, 2017 4:48 PM #

Actually, I do agree with you about Microsoft.
But they have so many users that their terminology should not be ignored.

Here are a few more views:

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_aix_71/com.ibm.aix.performance/natl_lang_supp_locale_speed.htm
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23824_01/html/E26033/glmbx.html
http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/nlsref/69741/HTML/default/viewer.htm#n1n9bwctsthuqbn1xgipyw5xwujl.htm
https://docs.intersystems.com/latest/csp/docbook/DocBook.UI.Page.cls?KEY=GSA_config_nls
https://sites.ualberta.ca/dept/chemeng/AIX-43/share/man/info/C/a_doc_lib/aixprggd/genprogc/nls.htm
http://scc.ustc.edu.cn/zlsc/tc4600/intel/2017.0.098/compiler_f/common/core/GUID-1AEC889E-98A7-4A7D-91B3-865C476F603D.html

It does appear, however, that what I call 'National Language' is often
referred to as 'Native Language'. And the 'National Language' terminology
is said to not be used consistently:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_language

I do still feel, however, that claiming 'Natural Language' support in R
sets expectations of new users overly high.

Thank you for spending so much time on such a minor nit.

Regards



On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 5:45 PM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com>
wrote:

On 31/08/2017 6:37 PM, Paul McQuesten wrote:

Thanks, Duncan. But if it is not inappropriate, I feel empowered to argue.

According to this definition, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Natural_language:
      In neuropsychology, linguistics and the philosophy of language, a
natural language or ordinary language is any language that has evolved
naturally in humans ...

Thus this banner statement may appear over-claiming to a significant
fraction of R users.

It seems that LOCALE is called 'National language' support in other
software systems.
Eg: https://www.microsoft.com/resources/msdn/goglobal/default.mspx

I wouldn't take Microsoft as an authority on this (or much of anything).
They really are amazingly incompetent, considering how much money they earn.

Duncan Murdoch

And, yes, this is a low priority issue. All of you have better things to
do.

R is an extremely powerful and comprehensive software system.
Thank you all for that.
And I would like to clean one gnat from the windshield.

I just wax pedantic at times.

On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 5:13 PM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com
<mailto:murdoch.duncan at gmail.com>> wrote:

    On 31/08/2017 5:38 PM, Paul McQuesten wrote:

        The R signon banner includes this statement:
               Natural language support but running in an English locale

        Should that not say 'National' instead of 'Natural'?
        Meaning that LOCALE support is enabled, not that the interface
        understands
        human language?


    No, "natural language" refers to human languages, but it doesn't
    imply that R understands them.  NLS just means that messages may be
    presented in (or translated to) other human languages in an
    appropriate context.

    For example, you can start R on most platforms from the console using

    LANGUAGE=de R

    and instead of the start message you saw, you'll see

    R ist freie Software und kommt OHNE JEGLICHE GARANTIE.
    Sie sind eingeladen, es unter bestimmten Bedingungen weiter zu
    verbreiten.
    Tippen Sie 'license()' or 'licence()' f?r Details dazu.

    and so on.

        Please ignore this and forgive me if this is an inappropriate
        post. I am a
        N00B in R.


    I don't think it is inappropriate.

    Duncan Murdoch