Programming is generally a manual operation — we laugh when someone asks us to “say something in FORTRAN.” It is a written language, and in spite of … - Gerald M. Weinberg

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Programming is generally a manual operation — we laugh when someone asks us to “say something in FORTRAN.” It is a written language, and in spite of its resemblance to other written languages, it differs from them in not having a speech system behind it. Not that written languages are simple transcriptions of speech, not at all; but a written language such as English is strongly influenced by its relationship to a spoken language. This influence is not so strong in other written languages, such as those using the Chinese writing system, but the influence — the mutual influence — always exists.