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by lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 532 days ago
HTML can be used to tell different devices in different contexts what to display and how to display it. It serves as a sort of general DSL, which is a bit of an oxymoron and does come remarkably close to describing a programming language.
1 comments
bowsamic 532 days ago
That's not really what's going on though. Semantically, it is a type of document that browsers to display in certain ways. A HTML isn't really programming your web browser any more than a .wav file is "programming your audio player". I suppose though, semantics are ultimately made up, and we can indeed choose to flip it such that documents are actually programs for platforms that are the document browsers
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lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 532 days ago
> A HTML isn't really programming your web browser any more than a .wav file is "programming your audio player".

Also not any more than a .c file is "programming your compiler" nor a binary executable is "programming your operating system" nor an operating system is "programming your hardware" nor hardware is "programming mathematics". Disclaiming HTML as a programming language when it is actually powerful for programming comes across to me as a No True Scotsman argument about "real" programming languages being used to program only in some contexts or to make only some things as the program.

I agree that it's a matter of semantics but I also understand HTML to be a programming language, semantically. It seems to me that where one draws the line for programming language is always going to be arbitrary unless one is willing to see that a language being used to program in some context is a programming language.

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bowsamic 532 days ago
> Disclaiming HTML as a programming language when it is actually powerful for programming comes across to me as a No True Scotsman argument about "real" programming languages being used to program only in some contexts or to make only some things as the program.

I mean it's just about the traditional intent, and still oft-used understanding, that web browsers are viewers for hypertext documents. But sure, feel free to call GCC a "C browser" and .c files "c documents"

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lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 532 days ago
It's not about "calling GCC a C browser" but recognizing that a "document" and a "program" are not mutually exclusive. Is HTML as a static document really so different from cards with holes punched through them (literally paper documents)?
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bowsamic 532 days ago
You’re just repeating what I said in the first comment, that they’re totally interchangeable and that the distinction is arbitrary
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