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

[wildstar <wildstar128@hotmail.com>]

"Randy McLaughlin" <randy@nospam.com> wrote in
news:vznIa.12535$uH2.214@fe10.atl2.webusenet.com: 

> You continue to show ignorance by talking about apples and showing
> sand.  No you can not play pong in pure HTML, neither can you play
> pond with the simple traffic controller I mentioned, nor can you
> program a 100 year old loom to play it.
> 
> Real programming languages are languages that allow you to do real
> programming.  Instead of talking about real programming come up with a
> real definition (and a reference so we can all read it) of programming
> that shows that HTML is not programming.
> 

Why do you continue to think HTML is a programming language. It is a 
markup language. Markup Languages and Programming Languages are all forms 
of Computer languages. Just stop acting like a f*cking moron then. Read a 
frelling computer book and get some experience in programming in 
BASIC,C/C++, Assembly and then get some skills on script languages 
starting with batch scripts and progress to WSH (Windows Scripting Shell) 
or equivelent, then Javascript and PHP. Then work with markup languages.

Ok here it is:

HTML Definition:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the set of markup symbols or codes 
inserted in a file intended for display on a World Wide Web browser page. 
The markup tells the Web browser how to display a Web page's words and 
images for the user. Each individual markup code is referred to as an 
element (but many people also refer to it as a tag). Some elements come 
in pairs that indicate when some display effect is to begin and when it 
is to end. 

HTML is a formal Recommendation by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) 
and is generally adhered to by the major browsers, Microsoft's Internet 
Explorer and Netscape's Navigator, which also provide some additional 
non-standard codes. The current version of HTML is HTML 4.0. However, 
both Internet Explorer and Netscape implement some features differently 
and provide non-standard extensions. Web developers using the more 
advanced features of HTML 4 may have to design pages for both browsers 
and send out the appropriate version to a user. Significant features in 
HTML 4 are sometimes described in general as dynamic HTML. What is 
sometimes referred to as HTML 5 is an extensible form of HTML called 
Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML). 
-------------------------------------------------------------------

[Now lets go to the definition of a programming language]

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/p/programming_language.html

http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?query=programming+language
programming language
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
<language> A formal language in which computer programs are written. The 
definition of a particular language consists of both syntax (how the 
various symbols of the language may be combined) and semantics (the 
meaning of the language constructs). 

Languages are classified as low level if they are close to machine code 
and high level if each language statement corresponds to many machine 
code instructions (though this could also apply to a low level language 
with extensive use of macros, in which case it would be debatable whether 
it still counted as low level). A roughly parallel classification is the 
description as first generation language through to fifth generation 
language. 

Another major distinction is between imperative languages and declarative 
languages. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci211502,00.html
programming language generations

In the computer industry, these abbreviations are widely used to 
represent major steps or "generations" in the evolution of programming 
languages. 
1GL or first-generation language was (and still is) machine language or 
the level of instructions and data that the processor is actually given 
to work on (which in conventional computers is a string of 0s and 1s). 

2GL or second-generation language is assembler (sometimes called 
"assembly") language. A typical 2GL instruction looks like this: 

                 ADD    12,8

An assembler converts the assembler language statements into machine 
language. 

3GL or third-generation language is a "high-level" programming language, 
such as PL/I, C, or Java. Java language statements look like this: 

public boolean handleEvent (Event evt) {
            switch (evt.id)  {
                 case Event.ACTION_EVENT:  {
                         if ("Try me" .equald(evt.arg)) {

A compiler converts the statements of a specific high-level programming 
language into machine language. (In the case of Java, the output is 
called bytecode, which is converted into appropriate machine language by 
a Java virtual machine that runs as part of an operating system 
platform.) A 3GL language requires a considerable amount of programming 
knowledge. 

4GL or fourth-generation language is designed to be closer to natural 
language than a 3GL language. Languages for accessing databases are often 
described as 4GLs. A 4GL language statement might look like this: 

     EXTRACT ALL CUSTOMERS WHERE "PREVIOUS PURCHASES" TOTAL MORE THAN 
$1000

5GL or fifth-generation language is programming that uses a visual or 
graphical development interface to create source language that is usually 
compiled with a 3GL or 4GL language compiler. Microsoft, Borland, IBM, 
and other companies make 5GL visual programming products for developing 
applications in Java, for example. Visual programming allows you to 
easily envision object-oriented programming class hierarchies and drag 
icons to assemble program components. 

[ Now to give you a little more definitional background.]

There is no easy and very well defined written defintion but I'll give 
you a little clue from actual programming experience. If you followed the 
part about HTML. HTML is mostly a set of markup symbols. Every computer 
language defines some form of process but is not used to create programs 
as a programming language defines. A web page is not really a program per 
say. A programming language is more functional then a mark up language. A 
programming language is used to create "programs". When you use the word 
program in a programming environment, it is often referred to stuff like 
your word processor, pain program, the browser itself, games, and several 
other stuff. A program can be a menu and often is referenced in the terms 
of actual applications, games,and stuff that runs on the computer. Try to 
understand that things are more defined and categorized into individual 
categories or sub-categories.