Re: [dev] Convert Suckless Projects Documentation to a More Simple Language

On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 02:03:31PM +0100, Ethan Grammatikidis wrote:
>
> On 17 Jun 2010, at 11:15, Kris Maglione wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 11:59:25AM +0200, pancake wrote:
>>> When i said toki pona..i was not joking..
>>>
>>> http://en.tokipona.org/
>>>
>>> you can index the dictionary with a byte.
>>
>> It might be alright as a pidgin, but as someone with pronounced
>> logophilia, I'd tend find it insufferable. Beyond that, it by nature
>> requires that things which can be said in other languages in one word.
>> This does recommend it to technical writing.
>
> I'd say I have a little logophillia myself, but I'd rather learn how to
> combine few short words than memorise numerous long ones. In fact it
> rather parallels how I'd rather use rc than bourne shell, plan 9 than
> posix.

I might also add that it would be as aply named if Pona
translated as New. I'm not necessarily averse to a properly
designed language[1]; one of Tolkein's might perhaps do nicely.
But Toki Pona isn't it.

[1] Though, in practice, they tend not to catch. Our brains
evolved to process languages that grew organically, and they
tend to work in ideosyncratic ways that we can't really put
rules to. And, when we come to situations that the language
doesn't handle well, we tend to improvise without much
consideration, so the languages tend to shift regardless.
Pidgens, used for long enough, turn into creoles without
exception.

-- 
Kris Maglione
I have ever hated all nations, professions, and communities, and all
my love is toward individuals.
	--Jonathan Swift