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Comment by cyborgx7 | Hacker News Reader

So glad this turned out to be a joke in the second paragraf. The first is very believable. I've definitely encountered people who would write something like it unironically.

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Yeah, thanks for saying that in English, I wouldn't have been able to understand you in any other language.

da nicht für

syntax error

Excel and other spreadsheet software products localize their function names.

So people learn to use those in their native language which is great.

But if they need to use the same software with a different language setting, because they move or work abroad, they have to relearn all those function names, which sucks...

It's not great even in the learning scenario. First I have to Google how to solve the problem and then I have to Google how to translate the function names to Swedish.

> Excel and other spreadsheet software products localize their function names.

And, most annoyingly, their thousands and decimal separators. That has tripped me up countless times.

100,991 vs 100.991.

python --lang=german main.py

shivers

Basic would be fun though...

10 drucken 'Hallo, Welt!" 20 gehe zu 10

10 drucken 'Hallo, Welt!" 20 gehe zu 10 aber schnell

-o3

Think it would be --lang=deutsch. Gotta internationalize the command-line flags too!

I think you mean, --sprache=deutsch

You are all being silly.

Obviously we would translate the name of the command itself, and the language would be implied

  riesenschlange main.py

Frankfurt-am-Main.py

Absolutely. If we do localization of UI texts, the command line options should be included :)

Imagine the CLI...

It's already there, I've often seen console output with translated error messages. Helpful for the users but not of much use to developers, unless using error codes as well

Scala has a german version: https://www.scala-lang.org/blog/2017/04/01/announcing-skala....

Release date is 1st of april though

Haut.py

More like 'Haupt.py'. ('Haut' is 'skin') But in German that alone would translate back to 'head.py', so you might want to give some more context to it like 'Hauptdatei.py' ('main file.py').

TBH, I didn't get the joke until I read your comment. A small "/s" at the end wouldn't hurt.

To be frank, "/s" would have totally ruined it for everyone else.

I'm assuming that you simply didn't read past the first paragraph? (That's fine, I bet we all do that way too often here) I mean, I have a hard time believing that you really can't tell that a post that states that everybody uses FORTRAN isn't serious.

I care because HN has a way of ruining satire and sarcasm this way. These are only the delightful stylistic devices that they are when you don't say that it's satire (resp sarcasm). I truly wish we'd all "/s" a little less, not more :-)

I have run into this a few times when I've posted a link (where it seemed amusing and relevant to a discussion) to this classic video of Australian Senator Bob Collins discussing an environmental mishap:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM

Invariably, someone replies with a comment like "People should be aware that this is not actually an Australian senator, it is the comedian John Clarke impersonating one."

Every. Single. Time.

As if it wouldn't be obvious after watching the first few minutes of the video!

What ever happened to the fun of not realizing something is satire until you're partway into it?

I'm sad to admit I downvoted after the first paragraph. I was glad HN let me undo that after I read the second :)

(also, hey skrebbel! :)

small world!

> To be frank, "/s" would have totally ruined it for everyone else.

Yes and no. Here on HN I see it everyday: good on-topic jokes get downvoted.

I suspect this happens because when people are in "HN mode" there comes a sort of earnestness into their state that makes it hard to detect other tonalities.

P.S. I needed the FORTRAN bit until it dawned on me…

We need a committee to form standards for sarcasm indicator use in various contexts.

No, not really, I read the whole post. And the FORTRAN reference was weird, but there are weirder things people post (and believe), and when writing, people do make mistakes. Thinking back, it should have been the clue, but it wasn't. And judging by the other answers, I am not the only one who was fooled by the tone.

That said, if you feel like `/s` is ruining the sarcasm for you, the solution is pretty simple. GreaseMonkey [0] should be able to remove it very easily, while adding it would be _a bit_ more challenging.

[0] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/greasemonkey/

> No, not really, I read the whole post. And the FORTRAN reference was weird, but there are weirder things people post (and believe)

True. I'm sometimes a source for similarly controversial statements. However, the following line should suffice to indicate the facetiousness of the post:

> This is the same reason that everyone uses FORTRAN.

Everyone does not use FORTRAN, and in fact it is so uncommonly used that it is ridiculous anyone would think otherwise. There are probably quite a lot of people in this industry who've never even heard of FORTRAN.

This is a common form of sarcasm in English, to counter an argument (programming languages should be English-only because there'd be too much fragmentation otherwise) by presenting the same argument in the context of something obviously untrue (that's why everyone uses FORTRAN).

Did you read my comment? I also said:

> ...and when writing, people do make mistakes.

Maybe he meant Python, who knows? If only there was a way to signal you are being sarcastic to avoid misunderstandings. Oh wait... /s

"Fortunately, programmers collectively decided to all use the same language."

That zinger didn't tip it off to you?

Pointing out it was indeed a joke, was part of the reason I wrote the comment in the first place.

Just to be clear - I think your parent should have put '/s' at the end, not you. :)

I once worked with a person in an ecommerce department who was annoyed that a German website used German instead of English.

Wow I stopped reading after the first paragraph and almost missed the joke. I have other things to do...

That's one of the biggest problems with sarcasm/irony in casual writing. There's always someone who misunderstands and treats it as serious. This problem is amplified by the number of eyes a typical internet comment receives. It's a major way people are radicalized by internet communities. There's always a proportion of members who are being "ironically" sexist/racist/discriminatory but eventually people take it seriously, the ironic commenters are pushed out of the community and presto, you have 4chan and worse.

I watched this happen in /r/TumblrInAction. Over the years it got more mean spirited and fell for more obvious trolls/satire as people less committed to the cause of disrespecting self-identity moved on. Now it's all "lol attack helicopters" and cruelty, and half the former regulars are now queer leftist furries.

I loath the cheap humor aspect to forum commentary. It is hurtful as noise or incidentally inflammatory, as you mentioned. There is no way to eliminate it, but that isnt the point. I dont promote pure misdirection.

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