"The debate competition doesn't start until next week; there's no need to rush," Chen Feng replied, deflecting.
"Chen Feng, I'm your woman, and you're not telling me the truth..." Cheng Lu deliberately tried to trick him.
"Xiao Lu, please don't overthink it. I didn't mean it like that." In his haste, Chen Feng called Cheng Lu by her nickname. For years, he had only called her Miss Cheng.
"Since you didn't mean it like that, then tell me quickly. Who is Capital University's strongest opponent next week?" Cheng Lu felt a sweetness in her heart. Chen Feng calling her Xiao Lu meant this man had officially claimed her as his woman.
"The foreign aid debate team, the American Harvard University debate team," Chen Feng said softly. He had initially wanted to keep it from Cheng Lu, but since she kept pressing, he couldn't avoid answering.
"What? The Harvard University debate team? That's unlikely! Chen Feng, isn't it the China University Debate next week? Why would the Harvard University debate team participate?" Cheng Lu asked, bewildered.
"The Harvard University debate team wasn't supposed to participate, but the Wang family from the capital specifically sponsored them to come to China for the debate," Chen Feng didn't hide anything from Cheng Lu.
"The Wang family from the capital? You mean Teacher Wang's family?" Cheng Lu asked with a worried expression.
"To be precise, it's Teacher Wang's two older brothers. They might think I have improper thoughts about Teacher Wang, so they are very hostile towards me. Now, whatever I do, their Wang family brothers will oppose me," Chen Feng explained.
"It's no wonder Teacher Wang's two elder brothers misunderstand you. You're so outstanding; every woman would like you. But it's okay, losing to the Harvard University debate team wouldn't be embarrassing," Cheng Lu said with a smile. Losing to another Chinese university might be embarrassing for Capital University, but losing to a world-renowned institution like Harvard University wasn't a big problem.
"We cannot lose," Chen Feng replied sternly.
"Why can't we lose?" Cheng Lu asked curiously.
"Cheng Lu, you're also Chinese, and you've been out of school for several years. You should know that China's development worldwide has been rapid in recent years, and in many aspects, we can rival America. In other words, we Chinese no longer need to feel inferior when we talk about America. China's GDP is now seventy-seven percent of America's. How long did it take us to surpass America? Therefore, we Chinese don't need to look up to Americans and American schools with awe as we did before. So, this is a good opportunity for Chinese universities to hold their heads high. As Chinese people, we must have this spirit," Chen Feng explained earnestly.
Cheng Lu was instantly impressed. Chen Feng's perspective had elevated several notches. Calling Chen Feng a patriot wouldn't be an exaggeration. In this materialistic era, for someone Chen Feng's age to have such awareness was truly rare. What was even rarer was that Chen Feng was just a grassroots staff member in the political arena, yet his perspective was on par with that of a national-level cadre, which was exceptionally rare. From this aspect, Chen Feng's future in the political arena was boundless!
"Chen Feng, I heard them say that debating with Harvard University requires English throughout. Is that okay?" Cheng Lu asked with concern.
"That's not a problem at all. The students at Capital University, including you, are quite good at English. As for me, I don't even need to mention it; I'm as fluent in English as I am in Chinese. But that's not the point. The point is, I'm a bit confused about the debate topic next week," Chen Feng sighed.
"Oh right, I forgot to ask you. What's the debate topic for next week?"
"Is it better to use English or Chinese for computer programming," Chen Feng replied truthfully.
"We're finished, truly finished. For other debate topics, there might still be a miracle, but for this debate topic, there's no miracle at all. Harvard University's debate team will surely choose English for computer programming, and we'll choose Chinese. Aren't we bound to lose? Everyone knows that Chinese programming is still in its infancy, and in many aspects, it lags behind English programming," Cheng Lu said anxiously.
"Xiao Lu, you don't need to worry so much. I graduated from the computer science department, so I know what language is better for programming," Chen Feng advised Cheng Lu.
"Can you explain it simply?" Cheng Lu tentatively asked.
"Yes," Chen Feng took a deep breath and began to explain the advantages of Chinese programming to Cheng Lu, word by word. This would also be Chen Feng's theoretical basis for tomorrow. With these theoretical underpinnings, winning the debate against the Harvard University debate team wouldn't be difficult.
First, programming languages based on Western alphabets often have nested structures, with modules inside modules, and curly braces within curly braces. This is actually a result of not fully utilizing the horizontal dimension of text to express logic. The overuse of pronouns can be considered the biggest drawback, even a flaw, of the Latin alphabet's semantic representation. Using Chinese can optimize this flaw. With Chinese for semantic representation, many codes that would otherwise require functions can be expressed in a single sentence.
Second, apart from that, the completeness of semantic representation in Chinese characters is also an advantage of Chinese programming. For example, in English programming environments, as a project progresses, abbreviations like 'bt_device' often appear for Bluetooth. However, for Chinese, the two characters "蓝牙" (lán yá) are unlikely to be split into "蓝" (lán) or "牙" (yá). Even the worst programmer can write semi-semantic code, at least choosing understandable variable names. Furthermore, not only can each Chinese character represent meaning, but each character also has a part of speech, which is extremely beneficial for naming variables in functional or object-oriented programming.
Simply put, while Chinese might take up more storage space than English in terms of character storage, in terms of byte-to-meaning ratio, Chinese absolutely crushes the Latin alphabet. Therefore, if Chinese programming is truly to achieve anything, the ability to express logic at a high level of abstraction is the focal point. How to utilize the advantage of Chinese's information density when writing high-level abstract logic, fully leveraging the horizontal semantic representation of text, and optimizing code writing structure and logical hierarchy – this is the direction that Chinese programming enthusiasts and proponents should focus on. Instead of writing meaningless garbage like 'A = 250' to prove how feasible Chinese programming is. Most people can transcribe the logic above into English, either by changing lines or using abbreviations. It's impossible to be as elegant as Chinese.
Code is its own comment, naturally close to natural language, fully utilizes the horizontal direction to express logic, and is inherently object-oriented.
After listening to Chen Feng's serious and insightful explanation, Cheng Lu was once again impressed. A true all-rounder; he was absolutely a genius. So far, there was no field that Chen Feng didn't excel in. She truly wondered how his brain was wired.
"By the way, Chen Feng, if we win tomorrow, how will we explain it to the Wang brothers?" Cheng Lu asked tentatively.