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As a native french speaker, I feel so uneasy reading source code in french. It feels very very uncanny. I've often wondered if English native speakers feel the same when reading normal source code which is always in English. They probably don't. But how? I've always associated the "other language-ness" to correctness and technicality. It must be so weird to code in your own language. Feels like reading bad pseudo code. It's very nice to be able to map "english" to "technical, correct" and "native language" to "descriptive, approximate, comments, pseudo-code". Having only a single language to work with is like removing a color from the rainbow.

fk lese(&selbst, schlsl: Zeichenkette) -> Ergebnis<Möglichkeit<&Zeichenkette>, Zeichenkette> { wenn lass Etwas(wöbu) = gefährlich { WÖRTERBUCH.als_ref() } { Gut(wöbu.hole(&schlsl)) } anderenfalls { Fehler("Holt das Wörterbuch".hinein()) } }

https://github.com/michidk/rost

You must learn about Baguette#.

An implementation of OCaml (similar to Haskell, but from France instead of UK), but with french pastries name. It was half a joke, half a serious study project.

https://github.com/vanilla-extracts/ocaml-baguettesharp-inte...

The complete dictionary is here: https://github.com/bnjbvr/rouille/blob/principale/rouille_co...

I just can't stop laughing at the "génial" => "super" https://github.com/bnjbvr/rouille/blob/principale/rouille_co...

Listen, if you didn’t just spend at least 5 minutes trying to make random foreign accents reading the code to yourself out loud trying to figure out what the code does…

We’re different people.

Previously discussed:

Rouille (338 points, 144 comments, Sept 11, 2021) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28490935

Rost – Write rust code in German (55 points, 16 comments, Nov 9 2021) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29159077

Rost – Rust Programming in German (161 points, 115 comments, Mar 25, 2025) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43488490

I like the translation of the WTFPL as « la license rien a branler »

If you don’t know the idiom, you should check it out, it’s both particularly vulgar and very commonly used.

I like to imagine a world, a worse one, where programming languages were localised. This might initially have been a versioning nightmare, with different compiler binaries for each localisation. Later, it could become standard practice to ship a single compiler containing all supported localisations, the correct one being chosen from either system language, a project-wide setting, a preprocessor flag in each file, or some combination of these. Everyone would have to learn a little Polish, and "Source Code Translator" would be a profession.

Name conflict with the OG rust synchronous web framework: https://github.com/tomaka/rouille

There were actually localized version of Visual Basic for Applications.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Basic_for_Applications?...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21352796

Is the compiler now gonna scream at me for using the wrong gender?

Related: Non-English-based programming languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-English-based_programming_... (not really up to date though)

This is very lenient French: "fetchez le dico"

This is hilarious, thank you for your effort good sir, this is what I pay the internet for! :)

Unfortunately it still uses a dot for the decimal point.

I was curious fairly recently if programming languages could support keywords in multiple languages. My mental experiment wanted to have translation resource files, mapping keywords or the concepts they represent (if, then, for, while, func, struct, etc) to a localized human language. You could code in your native language, and so could your international fellows - the file is translated in the editor

It got complicated fast. Now you need a canonical representation for disk, something still text, maybe English is the common denominator? Do variable names get translated? Etc

I would like to see it tried, but I’m not brave enough.

The Russian version linked there is, uh, underwhelming. That whole gopnik vibe is entirely unwarranted. I understand a bit of Spanish and that one is much better in comparison.

It’s funny because it forced me to consider how I would translate some of the keywords when reading the code.

Some of the choices seem debatable. I’m not sure I would translate Some/None this way. The second person imperative for Use feels very weird to me too and I don’t think using vulgar French is adequate.

I really like "convention/réalisation" however.

Funny, I was just thinking the other day that as a C/++ programmer, writing TypeScript feels a lot like speaking French where nouns and adjectives and verbs are all in the 'wrong' order. It's a very strange feeling, exactly like learning French as an English speaker

There is also a Rust minimal HTTP server by this name. (Incidentally, one of the few that isn't Async.)

That reminds me of LSE, a French BASIC-like programming language.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSE_(programming_language)

Fantastique !

Let's create "Piaf" to see la vie en rose, the French à la https://codewithrockstar.com/.

This is fun. My son is learning esperanto, is there a version for that, maybe a weekend projekto for him.

It's interesting how coding in your own language can make the logic feel completely different.

hahaha j'adore que le mot québécois "calisse" est inclus

Be sure to look at the "other languages" section; and then wonder whether all of it was generated by AI.

Not surprised this sort of thing pops up specifically for french. France is known to not speak English in some situations even though they know English.

C'est dégoûtant.

L'Horrible

next up, rust in ebonics

Currently computer programming is done using one's knowledge in mathematical language(or mathematical way of thinking) + knowledge in English. It would be nice to see how replacing the English part with mothertounge work. For me, atleast I can read the documentation with confidence and much ease(I'm not French btw). And may it become an experiment to see how it works for non-English languages. Thanks for the French to starting this. I was once wrote in my blog about programming in my own mothertounge which is Malayalam.