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OT: Programmers whos first language is not English

Andy Freeman anamax at earthlink.net
Sun Mar 16 17:12:43 EST 2003 
Stephen Horne <intentionally at blank.co.uk> wrote in message news:<rl397vsrjju0j22rjrocuifseen66kp5m3 at 4ax.com>...
> My reasons for wanting to mark up the basic plain text of source code
> go from wanting to store case/builder-like settings in a sensible way
> (storing pure semantics) right down to wanting to highlight the key
> parts of an algorithm in bold or with a different colour to
> distinguish it from validation and other necessary-but-distracting
> housekeeping code and thus improve readability (pure presentation).
> 
> If I have one solution to all of these problems, the existencee of
> alternate solutions to a few of them is irrelevant.

We've yet to see that there are "lots" of problems, let alone a
significant number that aren't already solved.  (That list isn't
particularly compelling as it is a list of problems that were solved
before XML was invented.  No, those solutions/tools aren't universally
available, at least not in a convenient form, but that argues that
they aren't actually all that important.)

And, even that isn't enough.  You have to show that the specific "one
solution" is superior to the n solutions.  Yes, there's some benefit
to a single solution, but that benefit isn't necessarily greater than
its relative costs.  (BTW, "xml" actually isn't a single solution - it's
a framework that allows one to apply various techniques.)  If it was,
every wrench would be adjustable.

Like I said, it's your time.

-andy
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