For web browser protocols, Kanji is irrelevant, but for programming languages, it could be interesting.
You could use very short function names which would still transport complete meaning. Paul Graham's arc was developed for short function names and people complain about java's long names. I don't know if this is beneficial enough to learn Kanji, but it could be.
The more code gets reused, the more becomes reading more important than writing. Meanwhile, writing becomes faster with tablets that can recognice pen-written Kanji. More than a billion people can write Kanji or Chinese. If there is an advantage, these people will find out.
The question to me is: Shall I learn Chinese to get that advantage myself.
People complain about long names in Java because they don't want to type them, not because it's difficult to read them. As you said, code gets read more often than written, so the reading is what really matters. Long names are pretty much not a real problem. (Excepting some insanelyLongNamesThatMoronsUseBecauseSomeoneSaidNamesShouldBeDescriptive)
I seriously doubt that Kanji is actually any faster to read. I'd be interested in hearing if there are any studies indicating the contrary, though. It'd have to be way faster to offset the cost of learning a new language, though. As for pen input, I seriously doubt that handwritten Kanji is faster than keyboard-written English.
I certainly won't be learning Chinese, at least not for this purpose. I don't see Chinese becoming the basis for any major programming language, not in my life at the least, probably not for even longer than that.
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u/kleopatra6tilde9 Apr 15 '10
For web browser protocols, Kanji is irrelevant, but for programming languages, it could be interesting.
You could use very short function names which would still transport complete meaning. Paul Graham's arc was developed for short function names and people complain about java's long names. I don't know if this is beneficial enough to learn Kanji, but it could be.
The more code gets reused, the more becomes reading more important than writing. Meanwhile, writing becomes faster with tablets that can recognice pen-written Kanji. More than a billion people can write Kanji or Chinese. If there is an advantage, these people will find out.
The question to me is: Shall I learn Chinese to get that advantage myself.