Some computer science for the day: A programming language, to be considered as such, needs to be at least as powerful as a linear bounded automaton (a restricted version of a turing machine). That is, the language must be able to emulate an LBA, and an LBA must be able to emulate the language. Essentially, if you have loops and variables you are an LBA. HTML has neither loops nor variables. Also, if you have loops and a stack (no variables, just push and pop from the stack) then you have a push-down automata (PDA). This would be considered by some to be a (limited) programming language - certainly writing in a language with the power of a PDA feels more like programming than writing HTML.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_bounded_automaton http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_complete On 07/12/05, Jim Cheetham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wed, Dec 07, 2005 at 09:44:41AM +1300, Steve Holdoway wrote: > > ...couldn't it be argued that html is also code? > > Oh, yes ... "HTML Programmers" ... :-) > > It's a code, sure ... but it's not really a programming language, it's > "just" markup. > > JavaScript however ... that's a language, and therefore is code. > > -jim >
