[VERY OT] a linguistic question (.sig-related, xposted)

[Michele Dondi]

How would I say, "I write programs in Perl"? Do any of the
following choices sound right? If not, how would you say it?

"Scrivo programmi in Perl."
"Scrivo programmi con Perl."
"Scrivo dei programmi usando Perl."

The second one sounds definitely clumsy, nay, I'd say it's not
correct: it seems you're writing programs *with* someone called Perl.

The third one is technically mostly[*] correct, but I can't imagine
anyone using it in any regular conversation.

I'd go with the first one if it were me, possibly even in a shorter
form: "Programmo in Perl", punto!

And how would I say, "I will write in Perl in May"? Would any of
these be accurate?

"Scrivero' un programma in Perl in maggio."

Why not? Well, what about "A Maggio scrivero' un programma in Perl"?

"Scrivo in Perl a maggio."

I would tend to consider this an anglicism and definitely it doesn't
sound very good...

"Quando viene il maggio, scrivero' Perl."

Huh! Don't!!

And can "Perl" be used as a verb? For example, does the phrase
"Happy Perling!" have a translation? My best guess would be:

It is definitely common in the english-based CS slang, see e.g. the
jargon file (=> google!), but not just in the same ways in the
italian-based one and I guess also in other localized ones...

"Perlisci con felicita'!"
or maybe:
"Perla felicemente!"

I feel like strongly discouraging you from using constructions like
these, that would be incomprehensible to mostly everyone and
ridiculous to those who could understand what you mean!

The best I can come up with is "Felice Perlaggio!", which doesn't
actually imply a verb. But then I'm not *much* familiar with all CS
italian subcultures, especially as far as Perl is concerned.

OTOH, even in English I've often seen "Happy TeXing!", but if memory
serves, never "Happy Perling!".

And, finally, can "Perl" be used as an adjective (like "perlish" in
English)?. Would the translation of "This program seems a bit
perlish" be "Questo programma mi sembra un po' perluto"?

"Perlistico"?

However the same cmts as above apply! As a side note and on an
unrelated basis, in (semi-)private communications I have used the
internationalese puns 'Perl-jutsu' and 'Perl-do'[**]: what about
these, anyway?

I know you probably weren't expecting these questions, Michele, but
I'm asking them to you because I always have a hard time saying to
Italians that I program in Perl (they seem to understand what I mean,
but I never kow what's correct). As you know, prepositions like "to",
"at", "with", "in", and "on" are difficult to use correctly in another
language, so I'm hoping you can help me out here.

Well, it's not clear to me at all if you do speak italian or wether
you only have a very limited knowledge in this sense, but in case you
do, then I think it would be sensible to post your question to italian
ng, like it.comp.lang.perl for example... I have not set Followup-To
there because I think it wouldn't have been polite.


[*] But not completely IMO, because it seems that you're *writing* the
programs with the aid (or by means) of a tool called Perl.

[**] To refer to Perl techniques, and to Perl overall philosophy.


HTH,
Michele