Subject: Re: lojban as a programming language [was Re: [lojban] Lojban for lay programmers]

From: Lee Daniel Crocker <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 16:17:31 -0800 (PST)

> >Novels should be in English. Opera should be in Italian.
> >Treaties should be in Lojban.
> 
> English was designed for novels?!

English wasn't "designed" at all--it evolved. And the art form
"novel" evolved with it, and the two are nicely suited to each
other. English is also very handy for humor, poetry (certain
kinds at least; the Greek vowel-length meter doesn't work, and
English Haiku area pale imitation of real Japanese ones), and
many other things. But other languages are clearly better
suited to specific uses: English calligraphy is nothing compared
to Chinese, for example.

Here's an exercise for you: translate this Grouch Marx joke
into Lojban: "Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. What
it was doing in my pajamas I'll never know."

That joke /can't/ be expressed in Lojban. It /relies/ on the
syntactic ambiguity of English for its humor.

--
Lee Daniel Crocker <[email-masked]> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/>
"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