Re: the English language part 2

[Emanuel Berg]

Ralph Seichter wrote:

> English [...] is convenient right now,
> because it is pretty simple, easy to handle
> in aging software, and works as a lingua
> franca of the IT/software community for the
> time being. We might see that shift to
> Mandarin, one of the languages
> I unfortunately do not yet speak, but
> who knows.

Answer: I

I can tell you with ~99.9% certainty that
Mandarin will _never_ be the "lingua franca of
the IT/software community"!

>> Stop being in denial!
>
> English (not American, mind you)

Did I say "American"? :O I don't think so, but
if I did, you're right, of course.

I like to jokingly call it "Anglo-American"
because of 1) the US contribution to IT
technology since at least the 50s (involving
not only Americans, mind you :)), and 2) we
tend to use American English rather than
English English, e.g. here is how it looks in
my ~/.Xresources

    !! colors (bl re gr ye bl ma cy wh)
    ! normal
    xterm*color0:  #000000
    xterm*color1:  #FF3232
    [...]

The textbook term would be "English" or
"American English", of course.

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573