From lee@piclab.com Thu Jan 24 14:19:32 2002 Return-Path: X-Sender: lee@piclab.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_1_3); 24 Jan 2002 22:19:32 -0000 Received: (qmail 14922 invoked from network); 24 Jan 2002 22:19:31 -0000 Received: from unknown (216.115.97.167) by m2.grp.snv.yahoo.com with QMQP; 24 Jan 2002 22:19:31 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO piclab.com) (216.121.191.70) by mta1.grp.snv.yahoo.com with SMTP; 24 Jan 2002 22:19:31 -0000 Received: from localhost (lcrocker@localhost) by piclab.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id OAA04467; Thu, 24 Jan 2002 14:19:16 -0800 X-Authentication-Warning: piclab.com: lcrocker owned process doing -bs Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 14:19:12 -0800 (PST) X-Sender: lcrocker@piclab.com To: Invent Yourself Cc: lojban@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: lojban as a programming language [was Re: [lojban] Lojban for lay programmers] In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII From: Lee Daniel Crocker X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=1436760 X-Yahoo-Profile: bowtie95841 X-Yahoo-Message-Num: 13030 > > I find it hard to imagine many of my non-computer friends wanting to > > learn Scheme, Guile, or Python. > > > > (It is also hard to imagine them wanting to learn Lojban, but it > > seems less hard, since it is a full language and they would have more > > motivations to learn it than merely dealing with their computers, > > which they hate anyhow.) > > Sell it to them as a language of artistic expression and poetry. No! No! Lojban, like any language--like any tool--is designed for a specific range of uses. While it is often handy that tools can be used for other things (like prying open cans with a screwdriver), the results are always best when you use the right too for the job. It gets the job done faster and cleaner, and doesn't mess up the tool. Sure, one could probably stretch lojban into "artistic" uses, but doing so would produce bad art and risk weakening the language for its designed use: clarity. Lojban should be "sold" for doing things like writing international contracts, technical specs, laws, computer programs, and other things for which ambiguity and cultural assumptions are bad. Literature and art thrive on cultural assumptions and ambiguity and arbitrary constraints and all those things we've tried to remove from lojban. I find no compelling reason whatsoever to think that lojban can be used--or should be used--for every one of the thousands of different things we call "communication". Like any human language, it is well suited to some of them and poorly suited to others. Novels should be in English. Opera should be in Italian. Treaties should be in Lojban. -- Lee Daniel Crocker "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC