Randy McMurchy wrote: > On 11/4/2011 6:27 PM, Jeremy Huntwork wrote: >> Still, both sides of the argument have valid points. Perhaps >> programming is too broad a term. > > Agreed. There should be a programming languages section, and then > perhaps a programming tools section. Combining them is simply > confusing. > > I've been around systems for a long time, and programming has its > roots in using a programming language to develop programs. To > expand that to include the tools that *may* help the programmer, but > are more useful as system utilities, is a stretch that I'm not sure > qualifies as making our book better, but instead, more confusing.
If you are a programmer, it's not confusing. If you aren't, it doesn't make any difference. You can argue nuances, but programming, software development, software engineering, etc are all a process that are doing basically the same thing. Is bash a user interface or a programming language? The answer of course is yes. Is XML a language? Well, the L stands for language. What about SQL? Is Python a computer language? Java? Dalvik? None of those creates binary code. They are interpreted. So is html. Is gcc a programming language? Not really. C and C++ are, but gcc will go through the process of calling a program to preprocess (cpp) and convert the code to assembly (cc/c++), run the assembly code through an assembler (as), and either create an executable program (ld) or library (ar). These are all parts of the programming process, but not the entire process that includes creating a specification (even if just in your head), designing a solution, implementing that solution, and testing the results. Repeat as necessary. Is vim or another editor part of the process? Absolutely. It all boils down to how you want to define the word 'programming.' You can define it in the small, or, my preference, in the large. It's a lot easier than saying 'Software Development Life Cycle'. -- Bruce -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/blfs-dev FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html Unsubscribe: See the above information page
