this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2024

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Sleep paralysis demon (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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What does your sleep paralysis demon ask you?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Hyper Text Markup Language

A. Yes it's a language.

B. People who write HTML have been called Programmers for decades.

C. Are you writing in a kind of pseudo code that the computer is going to transform into another form? Yes.

I think the problem here isn't that HTML isn't a programming language. The problem is that we don't further classify programming languages.

There should be Platform Languages and Client languages.

HTML is most definitely a Client Language.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Is Linux a operating system?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago

As much as a lot of us dislike it... I think it is difficult to argue for e.g. python being a programming language without including html in it.

And honestly if python is no a programming language because you use an interpreter... Then I would love to hear a non-bad-faith argument for c being a programming language as e.g. GCC could easily be viewed as an interpreter too. Obviously there is a difference but is that difference really the difference that you want it to be?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Does HTML or LaTeX or Markdown provide a computer instructions which are executed? I'm going to take the unpopular opinion and say they are programming languages.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

37 comments so far and not one answer.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's a markup language, not a programming language.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Woosh

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I don't think it is.

Care to explain what I'm missing?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's not a logical programming language, but markup directs the formatting and general output of content to the screen. -Is that not a function of programming?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Does that make Rich Text Format a programming language then? Does that make jpg a programming language?

I think that markup is the data that a program takes as input - but I also think it's not black and white. How programmy a language is is a sliding scale.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Those are interesting analogies. I guess I'd have to agree they are certainly a function of programming whereas I probably should have specified programming languages (directed by text) but then one could argue that the examples you mentioned are merely a language of buttons and other user input. —"Sliding scale " indeed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Sorry I wasn't clear, I meant the formats themselves.
Writing rich text using a text editor is kind of like writing HTML with a WYSIWYG editor, but just like with HTML you can go in and write RTF by hand.
Likewise you can use Photoshop to make an image, but you could also go in and set the pixel values of a bmp by hand.

By sliding scale I didn't mean wrt how you wrote them, but rather how much like an "instruction" the file tokens (for lack of better word) are. Is it instructing the computer to do something? Or is it data that the instructions act on?

Sometimes the line between input data and instruction is blurry.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Do I really have to explain the joke? The sleep paralysis demon is asking "Is HTML a programming language?" And the person is "sleep paralysed" to correct them or do anything about it really.

I don't know what else I can explain besides that.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So... The humor is just absurdity?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Can I borrow a dollar

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Nearly all the comments are taking a literal position on if it is or isn't a programming language.

Idky I'm being singled out for not understanding the joke. It seems like nearly nobody does. And I still don't.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The “joke” is that it’s an issue that people feel compelled to comment on, but the sleeping person can’t. Predictably, most people are blowing straight past this and commenting their opinions, but most of the other replies are joking or whimsical. Yours is straightforward no-nonsense. If I had to guess, I’d say that’s why you’re being singled out.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Ok, that kinda makes sense, but that seems pretty niche. you have to make a few cognitive leaps to get it. That's ok, it's fine to make jokes like that, but it seems a bit much to be a jerk to folks who don't get it.

Looking over the comment section again, it's still like it was when I posted: most people are taking the question at face value, and not engaging with the joke.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

You can't write a program in HTML.

End of discussion.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

I mean technically I could write an interpreter that assigns semantics to HTML constructs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

programing languages arent use to make programs they are used to program machines which is exactly what u do with html.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

they are used to program machines

Which HTML cannot do, because if it could, that would be called a program. That's what the word means.

HTML makes documents. It's a markup language. It's not even Turing-complete accidentally.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

The "program" is the package of instructions that tell the machine what to do. The instructions are written in a programming language.

With a markup language, the markup is the input to a program (like a browser) that tells the machine what to do.

But I think it's not really boolean, it's a sliding scale. Especially with so many programming languages being interpreted or JIT compiled. I think it's less a programming language than many other programming-related things, but more of a programming language than, say, a slideshow.

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