Dear Ingo, Danke, I agree to most of what you said technically. Just one comment:
* Ingo Schwarze <schwa...@usta.de> [2019-10-28 19:48]: > For a program used by a relatively small and technical community > like groff it makes even less sense than for software used by vast > crowds of unskilled people. And for a language like Italian (or > French or German or Hindi) where most speakers can read English as > well, it makes even less sense than for a language like Chinese where > considerable numbers of speakers may not understand English all > that well. For Italian one cannot say that most speakers can read English as well. I have been in more cities in Italy then 99.9% of Italians. I have visited all parts of Italy, all of Sardegna, all cities around and inside Sicily, lived in Rome, Venice, Vicenza, Messina, Agrigento, have seen villages, remote and civilized and primitive areas of Italy. I would not learn Italian would they be able in general to understand English. For French people, I really cannot say, but my impression from meeting French people in Italy is that they hardly speak English. German speakers speak English more than other groups you mentioned, and can read it. They will rather say "I do not speak" even if they do. Hindi are not English speakers. I do not know what you mean and how you measure it, but my last travel in Nagpur, India this month of October, tells me that maybe 5% of them are able to read English. If you only refer to group of people who know computing and software, those people anyway speak English and may not need any translations. Just my impressions. Jean
