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How the hell would anything coherent be drawn to a computer screen if the underlying description wasn’t logical? It might be messy, but it is being processed b
by williamcotton 3y ago
How the hell would anything coherent be drawn to a computer screen if the underlying description wasn’t logical?
It might be messy, but it is being processed by a machine that is fundamentally based on logic!
- eviks 3y agoRiddle me this: why does this blog list a long set of rules as a justification instead of a single one "because a machine can process it to draw something coherent"? Could that be due to the fact that your definition is irrelevant for this conversation?
- williamcotton 3y agoBecause a computer can take more than one instruction, right down to the CPU. Is ASM not logical?
- eviks 3y agoThis doesn't address my question
- williamcotton 3y agoThe author is missing a key understanding of how computers operate and any thesis that the human language is illogical to the computer system misses the point. Logical and confusing are two different concepts and I’ll leave it to the reader to ponder why.
- yCombLinks 3y agoSo if CSS had a property named Text-Color that set the font size it would be logical, because it's all based on logic? CSS isn't a mathematical construct based on first principals. It's a spec that was created to layout print-media style webpages in the mid 90s.
- williamcotton 3y agoYes, it would still be logical. You translate from English “Text-Color” to font size. To a computer there is no meaning in what the words ever meant. There is just the logic of the parsing and execution. For example, it’s “font-size: 20px”, which is not English and already requires translation. That is would be “Text-Color: red” and that results in a font size of 20 pixels in a consistent manner is still logical!
- politician 3y agoIt’s rather nonsensical though, you would have to admit. CSS isn’t a spec just for computers to parse, unless you consider it a write-only language written by savants.
- williamcotton 3y agoThe divide here is that I’m thinking in terms of a computer. Programming is already “nonsensical” by your definition! Just ask a lay person! What we do as programmers is translate into machine instructions. Yes, “Text-Color” being used to declare font size is confusing, but so is a for loop to the untrained eye! Is Brainfuck not logical?
- Dalewyn 3y agoI think a more apt argument to make is that "text-color" means absolutely pig latin to those who don't speak English. Their line of thought would be "Type 'text-color' to change the font size." (in their language, obviously) and it would be perfectly logical both from human and computer perspectives.
- williamcotton 3y agoVery good point! I guess for English natives the insight would be in Japanese, "text color" is テキストカラー (tekisuto karā), and "font size" is フォントサイズ (fonto saizu). テキストカラー: 20px; vs フォントサイズ: 20px;