Well, it kind of evolved into 'programming for everyone!' nowadays.
And I believe, that is the wrong direction.
Sure, we need to make learning programming more available. There are A LOT of people in non-English speaking countries where the language is a barrier for entry.
Many people say that people could make tools for their own use. It looks easy for us, programmers, when we eat, breath code. But for people with no background in programming, it's a lot to learn.
Let's make programming even easier to study but please stop shoving it down people throats putting it as something you can learn in a weekend when you are bored.
I wasn't aware that English was used as a programming language.
Seriously though. Most languages are relatively small (tens of reserved keywords, plus a handful of symbolic operators).
I don't think that changing the keywords to be based in another language would eliminate the complexity of getting the syntax correct, nor would it eliminate the logic required to understand the problems a level higher than that. And I am fairly sure there are tutorials available in other languages. I suppose documentation and libraries will be a different matter though.
Libraries are in the center when considering the role of natural language in programming and the barriers it creates: Programming languages contain built-in libraries, which consist of a large vocabulary of more or less strange concepts. Also, finding and grasping libraries is the way to effective programming.
Imagine turning the tables and learning programming with the APIs in Chinese if you can't distinguish the characters let alone "spell" them.
Even those who can program often hit a wall in the land of Haskell with monads, monoids and functors, which are more scary words and new formulations than complicated concepts. Heck, I'm sure some people first stumble in Hello World because it has little to do with a printer.
Also outside reserved words: How's an "object" different from an "entity" or how are "variables" in programming like "variables" in mathematics?
It has nothing to do with reserved words, it's about learning resources.
>>> And I am fairly sure there are tutorials available in other languages.
It depends. If we are talking about Russian, Spanish, Chinese, etc - definitely. But it's a totally different situation in smaller countries with their own languages (I am Lithuanian).
Of course at some point many people learn English but it's hard for teenagers who want to learn programming and don't speak any of the major languages.
And I believe, that is the wrong direction.
Sure, we need to make learning programming more available. There are A LOT of people in non-English speaking countries where the language is a barrier for entry.
Many people say that people could make tools for their own use. It looks easy for us, programmers, when we eat, breath code. But for people with no background in programming, it's a lot to learn.
Let's make programming even easier to study but please stop shoving it down people throats putting it as something you can learn in a weekend when you are bored.