Linux terminal commands in other languages?

[KGIII]

Here's something I don't know...

Let's say you're using a Cyrillic or a character language such as Chinese, Thai, Japanese, etc...

Do they still use things like 'ls', 'cd' or 'sudo'? As in, do they have special characters for those types of commands or do they need to type the English letters?

If they do use the same English letters, do they have to switch keyboard layouts in order to enter commands in the terminal?

That'd suck and slow me down.

Anyhow, I have an ulterior motive for asking. I see so many people who want to customize their keyboard layouts that I'm thinking about making a handy GUI app that will let 'em do so more easily.

 

[f33dm3bits]

I actually have never thought about that, interesting thought although I would expect the younger Asian generation to mostly understand English. My second language is English and in school we are all required to take at least two languages, English and a second language. Either way I always configure my OS with LANG=en_US.UTF-8 because I prefer to have my OS in English.

 

[KGIII]

I actually have never thought about that,

I've actually pondered this previously, but never found an answer. For whatever reason, my various search terms aren't giving me an answer. This is probably the dozenth time I've tried searching for answers and not found them. I'm hoping someone here will know. I could probably ask on unix.stackexchange.com. Someone there would know and I'd get fake internet points!

 

[wizardfromoz]

Intriguing question.

Chants mantra to self - "I am not going to get sidetracked with this, I am not going to get sidetracked with this."

Wizard

 

[KGIII]

Hmm... It'd be a pretty good use of alias, if they indeed have to type in English characters.

That's possibly be how I addressed it.

 

[bob466]

There's plenty of other things to worry about.

 

[Tolkem]

Do they still use things like 'ls', 'cd' or 'sudo'? As in, do they have special characters for those types of commands or do they need to type the English letters?

If they do use the same English letters, do they have to switch keyboard layouts in order to enter commands in the terminal?

Find out for yourself https://www.ubuntukylin.com/index.php?lang=en download the .iso and install or run the live version in a VM in virtualbox or some similar virtualization software. Leave the defaults so it uses chinesse, it shouldn't be too difficult since the process is the same, then open a terminal and try to run some commands and see what happens. Have some fun!

 

[KGIII]

I don't speak Chinese, so I can't test it.

 

[Tolkem]

I don't speak Chinese, so I can't test it.

I don't think you need to know chinesse just to run an Ubuntu live version in a VM, open a terminal and from your keyboard type

ls

and see whether or not it does what it's supposed to.

 

[KGIII]

That only tells me that ls is available. It doesn't tell me what they actually type.

Just because it is available doesn't mean that they use it. 'ls' and 'uname -a' work when set to a character language - but that doesn't indicate that it is what the users type. They may well still type different characters.

 

[Tolkem]

That only tells me that ls is available. It doesn't tell me what they actually type.

Just because it is available doesn't mean that they use it. 'ls' and 'uname -a' work when set to a character language - but that doesn't indicate that it is what the users type. They may well still type different characters.

What?? Did you try already? I don't think that's how it works, in fact, you should see the same thing in a terminal, unless they translate bash into chinese, which is not the case, is it? So for every programming language; bash, python, rust, perl and their respective commands as well any other English programming language, which is most of them and AFAIK there aren't any translated versions for them so they should use and type in English too and If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. I just tried

I had to use onboard though cause my keyboard didn't work as I couldn't type "ls" but the "s" only while with the virtual one I could.

I might be wrong though but I think I'm right

EDIT: Eh... I just realized onboard uses an English layout so ... yeah... still, programming languages are in english.

 

[KGIII]

Again, that only tells me that they *can* use English letters. It doesn't tell me that they *do/need* to type in English characters.

The two are distinctly different and the question is if they *need* to type in English language or if there exist character alternatives in their symbolic languages. And, also, it'd really suck to have to change your keyboard layout every time you wanted to use the terminal. Man, would that suck.

I'm well aware that they *can* use English characters. That's not really the question, however.

 

[Tolkem]

The two are distinctly different and the question is if they *need* to type in English language or if there exist character alternatives in their symbolic languages. And, also, it'd really suck to have to change your keyboard layout every time you wanted to use the terminal. Man, would that suck.

Ahh... think I've misunderstood your question. In that case, chinese keyboards use QWERTY, however, https://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-keyboards-2011-9

How Chinese Conquered QWERTY

TECHNOLOGY Conventional wisdom of the past 200 years held that China would have to abandon character-based writing and embrace alphabetization in order to prosper from world trade and technological…

blog.education.nationalgeographic.org

.

 

[KGIII]

That'd make it easier. Though there are other character-based languages, such as Japanese - such as Kanji.

And, yeah... I know they *can* use English characters in their terminal. That's easily tested with a VM. The question is really if they *need* to.

So far, nobody seems to know. I may have to present it to a wider audience, like unix.stackexchange.com - or maybe askubuntu.com. One of them will know and I might get fake internet points for it! I figure I'll wait a bit and see if it's answered here. If it isn't, I'll ask elsewhere and eventually report back my findings.

I've pondered this question off and on again for a while. I've tried a bunch of search terms, but to no avail. It seems like this should be easy to figure out.

I mean, I suspect that they must type in English characters. After all, if you want to program in C++ you're gonna need to be able to type in English. It stands to reason that it's also true in the Linux terminal - as you believe (and I think is probably true). But, I don't want 'probably' or 'stands to reason'. I want a canonical answer.

These are the questions that keep me up at night! Which is good, 'cause it means I've answered the more important questions!

 

[Tolkem]

One of them will know and I might get fake internet points for it!

lol

I've pondered this question off and on again for a while. I've tried a bunch of search terms, but to no avail. It seems like this should be easy to figure out.

Yeah, I tried that too even on youtube to see and try to find something but no luck. I did find a video

not particularly interesting and quite boring but the way she types is quite intriguing, maybe it has to do more with the programming language she's using than the keyboard itself... food looks pretty good though lol

However, if we think about it, people from China, Japan and any other country that uses a language with no "formal" alphabet, probably use a keyboard that allows them to type both; roman/latin characters as well as their own language ones, while some others like Russian language and the like which do have an alphabet, would do the same just in a different way, also, users from all those countries might have developed their own workflow; some will use a pure US keyboard all the time, others will switch layouts and whatever else that makes their workflow more confortable to their needs. Actually, English isn't my native language but I do switch to the US layout when scripting since it makes it a bit easier for me to type faster. I don't think there's a right or wrong anwer to this nor that there's a one fits all; in the end it all comes down to people's needs and taste.

 

[KGIII]

Yeah, I guess some of the languages use a keyboard layout that requires chording, like continually pressing multiple keys simultaneously. That has to be confusing. They're like permanently in emacs mode, or at least that's how I picture it in my head.

 

[rado84]

Here's something I don't know...

Let's say you're using a Cyrillic or a character language such as Chinese, Thai, Japanese, etc...

Do they still use things like 'ls', 'cd' or 'sudo'? As in, do they have special characters for those types of commands or do they need to type the English letters?

If they do use the same English letters, do they have to switch keyboard layouts in order to enter commands in the terminal?

That'd suck and slow me down.

Anyhow, I have an ulterior motive for asking. I see so many people who want to customize their keyboard layouts that I'm thinking about making a handy GUI app that will let 'em do so more easily.

The commands themselves you can't type in other languages. But you can use aliases and these aliases CAN be in Cyrillic. I've already tested aliases in Bulgarian and they all work just fine.

 

[KGIII]

Yes! Finally! Thank you!

I've wanted to know this for a while. This isn't the first time I've wondered. And, I too would use aliases. Heck, if I were maintaining a distro I'd make a set of default aliases.

 

[rado84]

I'm using Arch whose commands are single letters. So it's a lot easier to remember an alias like this:

alias rupd="trizen -Syyu && reboot"

than having to remember which letter of the command comes first, second, third or fourth.
It's even better if you have to create a backup of a folder at least once a day. A lot easier to just type "wfb" which in my case stands for "WaterFox Backup" which corresponds to this command:

alias wfb="rm -v /media/1000GB/PROGRAMS/LINUX/INTERNET/BROWSERS/WATERFOX/dot-waterfox.7z && 7z a /media/1000GB/PROGRAMS/LINUX/INTERNET/BROWSERS/WATERFOX/dot-waterfox.7z .waterfox -mx -mmt=8 && exit"

If I have to type this long command at least once a day, I'd kill myself. So aliasing is so much better, no matter for what purpose you need them.

 

[KGIII]

So it's a lot easier to remember an alias like this:

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I love aliases. I have two different alias profiles and I've maintained them for years. I have to change them if I have a different package manager, for example, but they themselves stay consistent. So, it's 'update' for me that invokes the update and upgrade with the package manager.

I've used these same aliases for a long while now.