Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by pjaoko 162 days ago
HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) is a specific kind programming language, a markup language. It is nowhere close to a general purpose (Turing complete) programming language. Maybe you meant the web stack (HTML, JavaScript, CSS)?
2 comments
1718627440 162 days ago
It's a (computer) language, it is also a formal language. A programming language is a language in which you can write programs, which are descriptions of algorithms. You don't describe algorithms in HTML, hence it is not a programming language.
link
pjaoko 162 days ago
Thats correct. Computer language is the top category. Markup and Programming languages are subcategories.
link
bigbadfeline 162 days ago
> Maybe you meant the web stack (HTML, JavaScript)

HTML5 doesn't refer specifically to HTML, rather it's "HTML + JavaScript + CSS". There's hardly a website nowadays that can be used without JS.

By using the name HTML5 as an umbrella name for a programming language API plus some declarative bits, the W3C tacitly admitted that the declarative push has been a mistake - I explained "why" in my previous comment.

link
pjaoko 162 days ago
HTML5 refers specifically to the latest, living version of HTML, the markup language. CSS and JavaScript have their own specifications, and version numbers. The term your looking for is the web platform [1].

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_platform

link
1718627440 162 days ago
On a technical forum in a post that contains, both the words "CSS" and "HTML"? Sorry, but no "HTML5" refers to the version 5 of the Hypertext Markup Language.
link
bigbadfeline 162 days ago
HTML5 is the HTML of today, that's what I meant originally. I'm not sure what you're afraid of, nobody is attacking you, I'm simply explaining what I had in mind, and why it's not unreasonable to use words in a more inclusive, close to contemporary practice meaning.

The fact is, JavaScript is ubiquitous in web programing and the web is unthinkable without it, it's so pervasive on the front end that it's been repurposed for backend use precisely because it makes a lot of sense to use one programming language for one project. Pure HTML is unsuitable for backend use and it sticks like a sore thumb in the front end.

Younger developers are likely missing on the history of the entire web endeavor but in order to get a feel for it, I'd recommend to focus on practical meaning rather than on trivial semantics.

The big point I was driving at is this: The damage has been done, instead of a clean rendering API we've got this hybrid monstrosity which locked us to a couple / triple browser rendering engines which, due to cutesy BS, are complex beyond comprehension, beyond security analysis or normal competition. This is what an obsession with fancy names leads to.

link
vpribish 162 days ago
nah. the technical semantics is absolutely the point when we're talking about code. HTML is thing distinct from javascript and CSS and it's very useful to be precise about it in our context.
link