Linguistics and Programming Languages
&quot;We have again the popularity of &quot;Wouldn&#x27;t it be nice if our machines were smart enough to allow programming in natural language?&quot;. Well, natural languages are most suitable for their original purposes, viz. to be ambiguous in, to tell jokes in and to make love in, but most unsuitable for any form of even mildly sophisticated precision. And if you don&#x27;t believe that, either try to read a modern legal document and you will immediately see how the need for precision has created a most unnatural language, called &quot;legalese&quot;, or try to read one of Euclid&#x27;s original verbal proofs (preferably in Greek). That should cure you, and should make you realize that formalisms have not been introduced to make things difficult, but to make things possible. And if, after that, you still believe that we express ourselves most easily in our native tongues, you will be sentenced to the reading of five student essays.&quot;<p>E. W. Djikstra, EWD952 [1]<p>[1]  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cs.utexas.edu&#x2F;users&#x2F;EWD&#x2F;ewd09xx&#x2F;EWD952.PDF" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cs.utexas.edu&#x2F;users&#x2F;EWD&#x2F;ewd09xx&#x2F;EWD952.PDF</a>