“
Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die
Grenzen meiner Welt.
– Wittgenstein
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“
The limits of my language mean the limits
of my world.
– Wittgenstein
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HOW A LANGUAGE
REFLECTS ITS PEOPLE
Alex Coles | RubyConf Australia 2017
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WHY RUBY?
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WE LIKE RUBY
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WE ❤ RUBY
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HUMAN
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Language
People
World
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Language
People
World
Computing
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PEOPLE TO LANGUAGE
LANGUAGE TO PEOPLE
LANGUAGE TO LANGUAGE
PEOPLE TO COMPUTING
COMPUTING TO PEOPLE
PEOPLE TO COMPUTING TO PEOPLE
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G’DAY MELBOURNE
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ABOUT ME
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@MYABC
Alex Coles
Oxford, England
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EURUCAMP.ORG JRUBYCONF.EU
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TRAILBLAZER.IO
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HIRE ME
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PEOPLE TO LANGUAGE
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LANGUAGES
➤ Natural - e.g. English, Spanish
➤ Constructed - e.g. Esperanto
➤ Formal - e.g. Algebra, JavaScript
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NATURAL
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HISTORY
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POLITICS AND
COMMERCE
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POST-TRUTH
BREXIT
FLAT WHITE
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REFORM AND PLANNING
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תירבע
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KAURNA
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INDIVIDUALS
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THE BARD
Creator of many words
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MATZ
Creator of Ruby
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COMMUNITY
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LANGUAGE TO PEOPLE
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SHADES OF GREY
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WELTANSCHAUUNG
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Edward Sapir | Benjamin Lee Whorf
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LANGUAGE AFFECTS
WORLD VIEW
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LANGUAGE DETERMINES
WORLD VIEW
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Wilhelm von Humboldt
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RUBY SYNTAX
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RSpec.describe 'my Ruby code' do
it_behaves_like 'the English language'
end
RSpec.describe Boomerang do
subject(:boomerang) { Boomerang.new }
it_behaves_like 'a hunting tool'
it_behaves_like 'a percussion instrument'
it 'is designed to be thrown' do
expect(boomerang).to be_throwable
end
end
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PUNCTUATION
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WHAT THERE IS
➤ ? question mark
➤ ! bang (exclamation mark)
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WHAT THERE ISN’T
➤ ; semi-colons
➤ () parentheses (sometimes)
➤ {} braces (sometimes)
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UNICODE
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LTR VS RTL
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WORD ORDER
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SUBJECT VERB OBJECT
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➤ The man eats fish
➤ L'homme mange le poisson
➤ a = 2
➤ a = 2 + 2
SUBJECT VERB ORDER