Should all code be written in English?
Firstly, I know this is both subjective and potentially argumentative but it does relate to a real software development problem I’m dealing with firsthand and I’d really appreciate some insights. Should software developers be encouraged to write code in English rather than in their native tongue and how great an obstacle does this create for them? I’m referring to local language naming of variables, methods, filenames, etc entwined with English language syntax (.NET and SQL in this case).

In my particular case (a global organisation encouraging code reuse), there are factors to consider such as collaborating with other people, transitioning support or handing over to another development team. In this instance its pretty clear there needs to be uniformity in the spoken language used but I’m concerned about how this my impact developers used to working differently.

Is it generally any harder for non-native English speakers to write code with English names? How do they go from writing English code syntax to local language naming multiple times in the one line? In a case like this do coders generally understand the meaning of the syntax or just the behaviour? Any thoughts on how all this affects developers and how they can be supported in transitioning to solely English syntax would be most appreciated.
Should all code be written in English?
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Firstly, I know this is both subjective and potentially argumentative but it does relate to a real software development problem I’m dealing with firsthand and I’d really appreciate some insights. Should software developers be encouraged to write code in English rather than in their native tongue and how great an obstacle does this create for them? I’m referring to local language naming of variables, methods, filenames, etc entwined with English language syntax (.NET and SQL in this case).

In my particular case (a global organisation encouraging code reuse), there are factors to consider such as collaborating with other people, transitioning support or handing over to another development team. In this instance its pretty clear there needs to be uniformity in the spoken language used but I’m concerned about how this my impact developers used to working differently.

Is it generally any harder for non-native English speakers to write code with English names? How do they go from writing English code syntax to local language naming multiple times in the one line? In a case like this do coders generally understand the meaning of the syntax or just the behaviour? Any thoughts on how all this affects developers and how they can be supported in transitioning to solely English syntax would be most appreciated.