Synonym for Boolean

Question

I am trying to find a word, other than Boolean, that represents a true or false value. Is there such a word?

Context

I am designing a programming language that is meant to be as easy as possible to understand for those who know nothing of programming. I am trying to name the fundamental types in a way that portrays their purpose to the target audience well. For example, instead of float or even floating-point number, the data type is called decimal. After much thought and use of a popular search engine, I cannot think of an alternative to Boolean for true or false values.

The reason I do not wish to use Boolean is that people who have not been exposed to programming or similar logical thinking simply do not know what it is, which is exactly what I am trying to avoid.

Solution 1:

Binary - in the sense of two values, but perhaps still too computer-y a word.

Logical - which has a history of being used in FORTRAN and some COBOLs, and thus might represent a less influenced way of discussing these values.

Truth, Truth-Value - as in whether or not something is true, rather that what is or is not in fact true. That is what Boole called them, after all, and we then named them after him.

Dichotomy / Dichotomous - again, having two values, but also linked to logic more than math.

The same goofy Lisp people who first called the pound sign 'hash', the period 'dot' and the exclamation point 'bang', did so in the same spirit you are working in. They also marked Boolean valued functions with a 'P' (because it looked like a '?') and referred to them as "whether" functions, as in 'whether or not'...

Solution 2:

In my programming days I thought of these as Yes/No values: declared global constants Yes and No, with values appropriate to the language (usually 1 and 0), named variables which bore these values FooYN, with Foo representing an appropriate name for the True state (e.g. OnYN, DoneYN) , and if the language supported it declared a YesNo type with two possible values, Yes and No. I found it made my code a tad more readable.

Solution 3:

Would constative apply?

Constative: being or relating to an utterance (as an assertion, question, or command) that is capable of being judged true or false

Solution 4:

A word or expression for "boolean" that is easily identifiable by those who know nothing of programming?

You might pretty well have named that expression already.

True/false values.

Solution 5:

how about a yesno it has easy mnemonics and it's easy to understand. sometimes you have to invent words, that's being done all the time in programming languages :)

Source: IT Professional