There are a number of programming languages that are not based in any way on English. (Some of these are even worse (e.g., bf, malbolge), but others have been called "fun to work in" (e.g., befunge).) As others have pointed out, however, that doesn't resolve the issue of documentation. If you've ever tried to program with inadequate documentation, you know this is a highly significant issue. Additionally, usenet (an important resource for programmers, especially when they're first learning) is mostly English, and most of the rest of it is in a small handful of other languages (e.g., German, Chinese).

(My pet theory on this issue is that one of the main reasons German (the language) is so common on the internet is because Germans are far more likely than average to be literate in English. This resulted in a strong German hacker community very early, and hacker culture has flourished there ever since. The major oriental languages are common because there are lots and lots of people over there, and I can't think of any other languages that are particularly common on the internet; most of the other European languages aren't for example. Spanish and French, both spoken by far more people than German, are far less common on the internet, or so it seems to me.) 

for(unpack("C*",'GGGG?GGGG?O__\?WccW?{GCw?Wcc{?Wcc~?Wcc{?~cc'
.'W?')){$j=$_-63;++$a;for$p(0..7){$h[$p][$a]=$j%2;$j/=2}}for$
p(0..7){for$a(1..45){$_=($h[$p-1][$a])?'#':' ';print}print$/}

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In reply to Re: Polyglot Challenges by jonadab
in thread Polyglot Challenges by Petras

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