If I draw a picture, did I program? Are artists programmers? What if I try to execute that binary of a digital image? I would say: no to the first, yes to th

If I draw a picture, did I program? Are artists programmers? What if I try to execute that binary of a digital image? I would say: no to the first, yes to the last. I think it's a big difference: the aesthetic and basic syntax qualities of markup, the completeness of a list of invitations to a party, and executable code. To me, HTML, CSS, XML, etc. are not code and do not have real bugs; they have design flaws and syntax flaws, just as a picture may need more red or blue. (But note that I'm not sure there's a right answer here, and I certainly respect you and your opinion.) I also think that it's not about abstractions but better abstraction mechanisms which work to reduce complexity at any level. It may get more complex, but you can manage that complexity much more skillfully. I am absolutely confident that we can find better abstraction mechanisms.