3 ms·

I've just been calling them that anyway since I found out they existed. Also, this guy is calling HTML a programming language. Make of that what you will...

• dentemple 11mo ago
  It is a language, just not a turing complete one. Pidgen is a type of language, too, but you wouldn't be writing Shakespeare in it. There's nothing to be pedantic about HTML here, and it just seems so absolutely pointless to me that people try to find a way to be.
  • wk_end 11mo ago
    It's not that it's not a language, it's that it's not a programming language. You don't write programs in it.
    • ayaros 11mo ago
      That's where I'm coming from.
      • deleted 11mo ago
        [deleted]
      • nashashmi 11mo ago
        It is just a syntax language, used in programming web pages. that would be a better descriptor
        • MrJohz 11mo ago
          Why is that a better descriptor? I don't understand this desire to demarcate between programming languages and whatever a "syntax" language is. All languages have syntax, even natural languages - it's one of the terms we've borrowed from linguists. HTML is one of the languages I use when I am programming. In the sense, I really struggle to see the argument that it isn't a programming language, unless someone is using a very precise definition of "programming language" that I'm not privy to. There's a bunch of well-defined stuff it _isn't_ (e.g. Turing-complete), and a bunch of well-defined stuff that it is (e.g. declarative, or a markup language), but as far as I can tell there's no better definition of "programming language" than "language used for programming", and it certainly seems to fit that bill.
    • deleted 11mo ago
      [deleted]
    • lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 11mo ago
      This topic always tickles the pedantic part of my brain. If I may assume that the reader would agree that JS is a programming language, what makes it a programming language and not HTML? What makes a static .js file a program and a static .html file not a program?
      • throwaway290 11mo ago
        programming language makes program markup language makes document program does things. document presents info. we use program to render document.
        • lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 11mo ago
          Thanks for your input but your answers still leave me with questions. > programming language makes program What makes a static .js file a program, not a document, and a static .html file a document, not a program? > we use program to render document. Is this like how node is a program that's used to render JS documents?
          • throwaway290 11mo ago
            you should start with definitions of program and document and you'll have your answer. in a simplified way, as i said: program does things. document presents info.
            • lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 11mo ago
              > in a simplified way, as i said: It's overly simplified to the point of being meaningless. A .js file is a document that presents information to me when I open it using a text editor. So is a .html file, for that matter. Something different happens when they're opened in a browser and, for that reason, they both seem to be programs as well.
              • throwaway290 11mo ago
  • deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
• ajkjk 11mo ago
  It is one...
• runarberg 11mo ago
  Yes, it is a programming language. And so is HTML, LaTeX, heck even Markup is a programming language. The shapes of discs you put into your 1950s Elna Supermatic sewing machine that alters the stitch, also a programing language. The only requirements is that it compiles into a set of instructions which computers (or sewing machines, etc.) know how to read and execute into a predictable (preferably desired) outcome. A programming language does not need to be Turing complete to be a programming language.
• hexasquid 11mo ago
  I've seen HTML and CSS being denied status as a programming language many, many times. It is a signal that the person making the claim hasn't encountered one of these debates before.