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> Is json code, too? I’m amazed this is even a question. Of course it is! It’s explicitly defined as an interchange format. Its only purpose is as code. > In
by eyelidlessness 5y ago
> Is json code, too?
I’m amazed this is even a question. Of course it is! It’s explicitly defined as an interchange format. Its only purpose is as code.
> In an informal setting.
What formal settings are we supposed to be satisfying?
> If you are, for example, writing documentation, please refrain from doing so.
I respectfully decline this request.
> But that's entirely situational. A yaml snippet containing my list of groceries is not code.
> Yaml doesn't have to be classified as code to be testable. "We should have tests for our configuration files" is perfectly reasonable.
I mean this with kindness and sincerity, if a little incredulity: maybe your definition of code is ambiguous and warrants some clarification. To me, this isn’t a holistic definition but it certainly seems like a relevant starting point: if it has a syntax specification that machines can use, it’s code.
- ChrisLomont 5y ago>Of course it is! It’s explicitly defined as an interchange format. So an INI file is code too? Generally people think of code as being executed and doing some task. Can you use JSON to compute prime numbers?
- reegnz 5y agoA language does not need to be considered Turing complete to be considered code.
- ChrisLomont 5y agoIt needs to perform some computation, right? Or is code now any structured data read by a program?
- olodus 5y agoA python script could be a text doc if you open it in a markdown editor. A yaml file could execute web call if run through a program with a parser. It is all up to the interpreter you give the code too. Your program that takes yaml config is an interpreter, though probably a very limited one and hopefully a safe one (though that needs to be tested / checked for to be more sure of)
- eyelidlessness 5y agoNow? XML has been code for decades.
- emodendroket 5y agoI would guess most would define "code" as being written in a Turing-complete language.
- eyelidlessness 5y agoSo without engaging the ongoing absurd debate about HTML or CSS… can you really say that SVG isn’t code? Forget what “most” would say. In your heart of hearts, can you write <path d="…anything at all"/> and not consider it code? What a disappointing pissing contest.
- bmn__ 5y agoThe guess is based on what? When I observe the world, I come to a different conclusion. I see people including non-programmers talk about HTML as code. I see software packages like editors that say they deal with code, and it's not about T-c languages. Encyclopedias and dictionaries record the definition of code very broadly as interpretation of information, not T-c languages specifically.
- emodendroket 5y agoI meant to restrict this to programmers. Who knows what lay people think.
- alephu5 5y agoThe most useful definition (for engineering) is that "code" changes/defines how the program executes. Your YAML shopping list changes your path through the shop, so it is code. For non-trivial programs the configuration space is so large that it's impractical to test every single configuration during development, so instead the operators are expected to test before putting into production.