British or American English?

Question

Just a quick question....

In all coding sofar that I have read here, American English is used. E.g. color and not colour...

Does it make a difference in code if British English is used? Or does that stop the code from working alltogether?

Answer 1

Good question Louise Ammerlaan

Technically, popular programming languages are sets of keywords "borrowed" from English vocabulary. American English has a bit simplified spelling, so it's no surprise it was used as a "donor" for many programming languages. Besides, the USA is the homeland for many world wide tech companies, coders and inventors. American English is also THE English for numerous non native English speakers, due to strong pop culture influence. These are the main reasons in my humble opinion.

Anyways, programing is an exercise in precision. Different spelling causes errors in code. So you should spell keywords precisely to the rules and conventions.

Answer 2

The founder of HTML wrote those code in American English

Answer 3

You can use any spelling in your own variable, object and function names. But the keywords given by each language, and the code written by others, does not tolerate any typos or dialects. So, try to get used to it :)

Fun fact: the only time I ever encountered British spelling in a programming language, was Haskell
http://hackage.haskell.org/package/colour-2.3.5/docs/Data-Colour.html

Answer 4

You'll need to use A͟m͟e͟r͟i͟c͟a͟n͟ E͟n͟g͟l͟i͟s͟h͟ ͟.

Because, the developers used American English to develop p͟r͟o͟g͟r͟a͟m͟m͟i͟n͟g͟ l͟a͟n͟g͟u͟a͟g͟e͟s͟.

E͞d͞i͞t͞
Loeschzwerg

T̶h̶a̶t̶'s̶ n̶o̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ m̶o̶r̶e̶ t̶h̶e̶n̶ f̶o̶n̶t̶ o̶f̶ F̶a̶n̶c̶y̶ K̶e̶y̶b̶o̶a̶r̶d̶.
Y̶o̶u̶ c̶a̶n̶ I̶n̶s̶t̶a̶l̶l̶ i̶t̶ f̶r̶o̶m̶ g̶o̶o̶g̶l̶e̶ p̶l̶a̶y̶ s̶t̶o̶r̶e̶. I̶'v̶e̶ n̶o̶ i̶d̶e̶a̶ a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ a̶p̶p̶l̶e̶ s̶t̶o̶r̶e̶.

Answer 5

Unfortunately, british english would not be recognised by the interpreter/compiler/web browser

Answer 6

when giving a name to an element or defining a class, you may select what ever term you would like (it could even be random symbols) As far as i know in the code concerning block level/ some inline elements need to be the same as discussed in the SoloLearn lessons. I suggest to follow exactly what SoloLearn says, cuz they know what they are doing. If it is just a habit for you to spell things in British English, it would be healthy for your brain to adjust to something new. Those who are more experience, please correct me if i am wrong. I just want to learn and help. Great Question!

Answer 7

One more point to your question: "Does it make a difference?"
It depends on the language which characters and symbols are allowed in variable names. Sometimes you are limited to ASCII letters, digits and underscore.
But for example Python allows almost any unicode character in your custom symbols (functions, classes, variables) as long as it doesn't clash with reserved keywords and symbols. See in this example
https://code.sololearn.com/cOU6nttat6Ut/#py

So it is fine to use any language of the world, any spelling and dialect you feel comfortable with.
However! Most of the time, the code you write, will be read and maybe modified by other people. If you want your "readers" to be comfortable, you should use characters and words they are comfortable with. So it may not be the best idea to use any local language that your audience does not know.
Likewise, the American way of spelling is much more common and accepted in the computing world, so that everyone, including non-English speakers and even programmers in Britain, expect and use the American spelling most of the time.

Language is a living and mutating thing, the rules change `ever so often`. Especially in this age, when the internet and social media allow any new idea and meme to spread across the world in a few minutes, like a virus. The original British spelling of "program", is actually "programme" - now even in British English these two words mean different things. In everyday speech and human interactions, the local dialects and traditions do matter, but in programming, I think it makes sense for the English language to head towards a common global template, as a common denominator for all speakers.

Answer 8

code does stop working all together

HTML was developed by Tim Berners-Lee
so being an American

you gotta use color instead of Colour....

Answer 9

Color or colour 😆

Answer 10

In html or css or xml, there was used color not colour because The hole world following American English.

Answer 11

American , wished it was british

Answer 12

Most programming languages are written in American English.
Here is a link that tells you why-
https://www.technotification.com/2018/09/programming-languages-english.html
(It starts doesn’t start explaining why until the paragraph called 2.). Also British English wouldn’t work.

Answer 13

Just for the record, there is no British English, there is English English, Scottish English and Welsh English, plus the versions used in other parts of the world like India, America, etc.

Edit:
It’s clear that my sense of humor is slighty too cryptic for some of you.

Most computer languages originated in America so of course the programming will use American spelling. Even the symbols used in various languages originate from an American keyboard. The first letter of the acronym ASCII refers to the word American.

Let’s return to discussing programming.