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Natural vs National in R signon banner?

4 messages · Martin Maechler, Peter Dalgaard, Mark van der Loo +1 more

Original
Martin Maechler
# 
> 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.

continuing the nits and gnats :

I think I now understand what you mean.  From the little I
understand about English intricacies and with my not
fully developed gut feeling of good English (which I rarely
speak but sometimes appreciate when reading / listening),
I would indeed

prefer  'Native Language'
to	'Natural Language'	

Martin Maechler
ETH Zurich

    > 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

  
  


  


    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Peter Dalgaard
    

    

      
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Just leave it, I think. Some nations have 4 national languages (as Martin will know), some languages are not national, and adopted children often do not speak their native (=born) language... I suspect someone already put a substantial amount of thought into the terminology.

-pd

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Mark van der Loo
    

    

      
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The way it's phrased now makes it seem that English is not a Natural
language ("Natural language support *but* running in an English locale").
Why not just state: "running in an English locale" and leave it with that?
Better to leave something out than to be unclear (being correct formally
does not always mean being clear to all users).
-M

Op vr 1 sep. 2017 om 11:00 schreef Peter Dalgaard <pdalgd at gmail.com>:

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      David Winsemius
    

    

      
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I think the goal is to notify the user that "internationalization" efforts have been made, so something like:

"Internationalization support of messages may be available,
 but currently running in an English locale."

That would have the desirable side-effect of alerting new users to the effective search strategy to use.