16 May
2011
16 May
'11
3:04 p.m.
From: Fred Cisin
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2011 2:34 PM
On Mon, 16 May 2011, David Griffith wrote:
> I also recently found Dr Seuss stuff translated
into Latin. How about
> Asterix in Gaelic?
I don't like Geisel's stuff, probably due to my sisters' over-reading of
it, so I'd never be tempted.
Yes, but is there a translation of Knuth, K&R, or
McCracken
("Guide to FORTRAN Programming") in Latin?
(I used to have a copy of McCracken in Spanish. When a cow-
orker needed to learn Spanish, it was a perfect tool.)
Probably not, but it could be done if someone felt the urge.
Well, maybe not Knuth.
Back in the good old days, when students knew
languages, I
used to start my microcomputer operating systems class with
"DOS ex omnes est divisa in partes tres"
Nowadays, nobody understands, and want to know,
"what do I click on?", rather than "how does it work?"
ITYM "DOS est omnis divisa in partes tres." We'll assume that DOS is
animate; were it neuter, make it "DOS est omne divisum in partes tres."
I would be willing to learn Greek just to read
whatever
Diogenes wrote. But, alas, NOTHING seems to have survived,
except for anecdotes that have been mistranslated and
redone by people with agendas. (e.g. giving Plato a
plucked chicken)
It's unlikely that Diogenes actually wrote anything. Like Socrates or
Herakleitos, he would simply have been in the habit of lecturing his
followers, and dropping the occasional _epos kalos_ ("bon mot").
As for "when students knew languages", it seems that Latin is beginning
to make a comeback in parts of the US education system.
Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Sr. Server Engineer
Vulcan, Inc.
505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900
Seattle, WA 98104
mailto:RichA at vulcan.com
mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org
http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/