Some years ago, I posted an engaging thread on this site about a Natural Language Programming system developed by my elder son Dan and I:
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/natural-language-programming.2358744/
I'm now happy to report that, with the assistance of a university professor in Argentina, we have been able to extend our system to understand, not just Plain English source code, but Español Llano source, as well. Here is a sample, top-level routine in English:
To run:
Start up.
Initialize our stuff.
Handle any events.
Finalize our stuff.
Shut down.
And here is the equivalent in Español:
Para ejecutar:
Poner en marcha.
Inicializar nuestras cosas
Manejar eventos.
Finalizar nuestras cosas
Apagar.
The system understands sentences written in all English...
Pick a color between the lightest gray color and the white color.
...or all Español...
Elegir un color entre el color gris muy muy claro y el color blanco.
...and even a mixture of the two:
Elegir un color entre the lightest gray color and el color blanco.
We were pleasantly surprised to find that the addition of Español to our system required only 598 new sentences in our compiler (an increase of just 14%). And I was personally delighted that I was able to make almost all the necessary adjustments myself, even though "Yo no hablo Español." This was no doubt due to our simple and unique approach to natural language parsing, which was inspired by this Gary Larson cartoon:
I've labeled this post as "News" rather than "Discussion," hoping to avoid the kind of cantankerous response my previous thread received. If, however, anyone would like more details about our bilingual system, you can write me directly (gerry.rzeppa@pobox.com).
Thank you,
Gerry Rzeppa
Grand Negus of the Osmosian Order of Plain English programmers
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/natural-language-programming.2358744/
I'm now happy to report that, with the assistance of a university professor in Argentina, we have been able to extend our system to understand, not just Plain English source code, but Español Llano source, as well. Here is a sample, top-level routine in English:
To run:
Start up.
Initialize our stuff.
Handle any events.
Finalize our stuff.
Shut down.
And here is the equivalent in Español:
Para ejecutar:
Poner en marcha.
Inicializar nuestras cosas
Manejar eventos.
Finalizar nuestras cosas
Apagar.
The system understands sentences written in all English...
Pick a color between the lightest gray color and the white color.
...or all Español...
Elegir un color entre el color gris muy muy claro y el color blanco.
...and even a mixture of the two:
Elegir un color entre the lightest gray color and el color blanco.
We were pleasantly surprised to find that the addition of Español to our system required only 598 new sentences in our compiler (an increase of just 14%). And I was personally delighted that I was able to make almost all the necessary adjustments myself, even though "Yo no hablo Español." This was no doubt due to our simple and unique approach to natural language parsing, which was inspired by this Gary Larson cartoon:
I've labeled this post as "News" rather than "Discussion," hoping to avoid the kind of cantankerous response my previous thread received. If, however, anyone would like more details about our bilingual system, you can write me directly (gerry.rzeppa@pobox.com).
Thank you,
Gerry Rzeppa
Grand Negus of the Osmosian Order of Plain English programmers
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