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Possible non-linguistic arguments:
0) Better beer?: the dominance of the UK and the presence of the Czech Republic on the list suggests that good beer may well be a factor but the argument falls down when you get to America. And why aren't the Belgians in the top 5? Those lads know how to brew.
1) Weather?: at first glance it seems to be places where its hot in summer so the population have to drink to cool down and it's too cold in the winter to contemplate leaving the pub. India and Mexico kind of buck the trend, though.
2) Price?: certainly knocks the Scandinavian types down the list a bit (still a very good showing from Denmark, mind) but hang on, beer duty in the UK is pretty obscene and we're still top of the pop-swillers.
3) Religious types/vegans/health nuts/general weirdos?: no shortage of these in the UK so scratch that one.
4) Better things to do?: is there something really awesome to be doing in Poland, Nigeria, Ecuador, the US Virgin Islands and other places that totally fail to dent the list? Maybe, but I very much doubt it.
I think the OP is correct, it's all about speaking English ...
Let's raise a glass to Shakespeare!
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
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Given the price of booze, I'm not surprised about where the Norwegians landed. Still, the UK would consume over twice as much as the Germans, which is hard to fathom.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Aussies would have been far down the list if not for Michael Martin.
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Quote: Women consistently reported feeling post-drinking regret more often than men, while German women over the age of 25 were most likely to be concerned about their sessions.
No doubt about that - especially when they turn their head in the morning and see what the 'bloke' really looks like.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos wrote: especially when they turn their head in the morning and see what the 'bloke' really looks like
HAd that happen a lot have you?
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At least a lad like you is safe from that - I hear those inflatable dolls cannot turn their head.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Munchies_Matt wrote: Brits get drunk on average 51.1 times a year,
Just round that up and call it "every weekend". ![Beer | [beer]](https://www.codeproject.com/script/Forums/Images/beer.gif)
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Most of spoken languages are written LtR (Left-to-Right) but Maths, the number language, is actually written RtL because the decimal numbers are Arabic numerals. (I know, most will get surprised, but it's true about Maths RtL direction.) But somehow the RtL and LtR languages got mixed up.
Instead of writing
x = a + 12 how about changing it to
a + 12 = x So, what are your views on creating a new programming language which follows proper LtR execution? Is there already such language? (Please, just don't remind me that there are already lots of programming languages (I know already) and I must not (try to) create one more.  )
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throw new InvalidPremiseException ( "ADD a AND 12 YIELDING x -- COBOL." ) ;
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I just threw up in my mouth, a little. 
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Because of the syntax error? 
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
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It depends on who you are trying to communicate with. A computer or a programmer.
From a computers perspective, if you want to model the execution steps, there is already a better language for this representation, reverse polish notation. (a 12 +)
From a programmers perspective, you want the code to be easy to read and I don't see how your proposal assists this.
- When reading code the variable being set is the most important.
- If I'm trying to understand code, I'll want to understand where a var is set, this is easier to do by scanning a block where the variables are aligned. It is easier for my eyes to find the line x=..... rather than .....= x.
- Following the logic of the algorithm would involve understanding where variables are mutated as much as what they are set to.
- For complex expressions, I'll probably only read and understand them once, while I'll explore the looping logic and structure of the flow of the code more.
60 years ago, there was an economic value in a programmer spending significant time making things easier for the computer.
Now, the value is in making things easier for the programmer, even if significantly more complex for the computer.
I've always wanted languages to adopt a true assignment operator x <- a + 12. But it would need to be a single character and exist as an easily usable key on my keyboard. Interestingly, Visual Studio allows unicode variable names, so I've written software using genuine alpha and beta glyphs.
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If you really want to program in RPN there is Forth. In my brief encounter with it I deemed it a write-only language.
At least, there was Forth. I have not heard much of it many years.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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Forth is still out there. It's still being used as an intermediate language at a place I worked for years ago. We (actually I) decided to write a multitasking subroutine threaded Forth for our industrial controllers. On the PC we developed an IDE where the programmer would just develop flow charts. Each flow chart would become a task on the industrial controller. The flow charts were then compiled to Forth by the IDE and would then be downloaded to the controller which would compiled it to machine code.
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That sounds interesting. Other than it uses Forth. 
That last thing I read about Forth was many years ago. It was about the development of the SPARC processor and Sun workstations. They embedded Forth in its ROMs and wrote the boot loader in it. As I recall, it came up and ran on the first attempt.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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I liked Forth a lot, but then I grew up on assembly language. The whole TIL (threaded interpreted language) scheme is extremely simple and is easily ported to different processors. One of the main problems with Forth is that the programmer is assumed to be an expert. There's pretty much no hand holding.
Forth Inc. is still in business too (www.forth.com).
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I didn't care for Forth. I didn't grasp it immediately and it was always a struggle for me to deal with.
The same applies to RPN for me. I think I was the only one in my engineering school who didn't have an HP calculator. Coincidentally, I went to school in the same town where HP designed and built them at the time.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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I like it because of it's interactive nature. Write a 'word' and you can test it immediately. Made for much quicker development at the time. Also, it was relatively easy to make a multitasking Forth (round robin scheduling).
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Take a look at the PostScript manual. As far as I can see its FORTH with extra graphics bits.
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I knew it is a stack oriented language, but never looked at it's keywords. I took a quick gander and it does look very forth like.
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Algol58 / 60 / 68 had an assignment operator which was (in the spec) a left facing arrow, but usually represent as := in implementations. We referred to it as the 'becomes' operator. The '=' was an equality operator. I do not know why K&R etc decided to use '=' as an assignment operator in C (a source of errors ever since, even in Yoda mode) even though C is ultimately derived from Algol; unless they wanted compatibility with FORTRAN (which uses .EQ. as its equality operator, so no ambiguity).
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For the new language, I am thinking from programmers' perspective.
The Reverse Polish Notation is good for computer but confusing for humans.
Writing a + 12 = x and finding where the var is set - is looking confusing but we may find some solution(s), I haven't yet thought much about it yet. We may also find some unique way of defining variables which is not used in any programming language yet.
The new proper LtR programming language idea came to mind to reduce code, faster parsing/compiling/execution, less code traversal. We may get used to the syntax if we practice more.
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NeverJustHere wrote: I've written software using genuine alpha and beta glyphs
Heaven help you if you ever look at the source code on a machine where the system locale is not set to English. I had a case the other day where a Greek mu (µ) character in the UI was showing up as a kanji character.
English version of Windows, check.
User language set to English, check.
English keyboard selected, check.
...
Wait a second. Who set the bloody-be-damned system locale to Simplified Chinese? At some point the box had been restored to the original image, and this was during a brief period when our out-sourced assembly folks were setting all of our boxes to Simplified Chinese. Grrr... 
Software Zen: delete this;
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Quote: there is already a better language for this representation, reverse polish notation. (a 12 +)
You were so close! Use prefix notation instead
(+ a 12) and then you already have a powerful language with modern language features.
Postfix notation
(a 12 +) gives you Forth, with little expressive power.
Prefix notation
(+ a 12) gives you Lisp, with all currently known language features.
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In Arabic the numbers are written left to right.
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