Re: Low-level vs. High-level programming (was My First Computer)

["Randy McLaughlin" <randy@nospam.com>]

"Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch" <bj_666@gmx.net> wrote in message
news:bdcl8u$rdkf2$1@fu-berlin.de...
> In <3EF962CB.9070909@worrlldnet.att.net>, Richard Brady wrote:
>
> > Introduction to Computers and Data Processing by Shelley & Cashman,
> > 1980: A program can be defined as a series of instructions which directs
> > the coputer to perform a sequesce of tasks that produce a desired
result.
> > The Home Computer Handbook by Schlossberg, Brockman and Horton, 1978:
> > program [is] a set of instructions arranged in a specific sequence for
> > directing the execution of a specific task or the solution of a problem
> > by a computer.
> > Introduction to Computer Programming with the BASIC Language by Deitel,
> > 1977: Computer programming is the process of instructing the computer to
> > utilize its various mechanisms to solve specific problems.
> >
> > That said, it would appear that HTML is a programming language, which is
> > used to program the computer display via an interpreter called a
> > browser.  It does solve specific display problems.
>
> We are running in circles here. With this def. almost any data is a
> "program". The example of word processing files was given here more than
> once. Do you think a Word file (without embedded scripting) is a program
> because it is used to program the computer display (or printer) via an
> interpreter called Word!?
>
> Almost any data used on a computer is structered and ment to be
> interpreted by some program.
>
> I think a keyword is '*specific* task/problem'. HTML's main task/purpose
> is not to give hints to a browser but to mark certain parts of a document
> as header, paragraph, image, link etc. to make the data "machine readable"
> to automatically extract information from it.
>
> Those markup can be used to render the document to screen or paper, but
> also to search documents or generate indices or do other transformations
> to the data. It's data, not program.
>
> Ciao,
> Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch

I think people are missing the point:  Computer programming and computer
programming languages can be extremely mundane including word-processing
etc.  The fact that the people doing these tasks are not called computer
programmers does not matter.  People can talk about what they want a
computer programming language to contain, that nice but it does not make it
true.

This makes many "documents" computer programs, but only by definition.  HTML
and many other languages do meet the minimum definition of programming, but
that is all.  Of course that is enough.