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

["Tjoff Tjonk" <tjoff@tjonk.now>]

On Thu, 19 Jun 2003 14:51:42 -0500, Randy McLaughlin wrote:
>> > HTML is an instruction sequence in programmed instruction.
>>
>> No, it isn't. There's no sequence in HTML. You can just as easily parse a
>> HTML page from the end and get the same result. You cannot do that with a
>> computer program.
> 
> HTML would not have the same results if read backwards.  It must be read in
> sequence to perform.

Randy, it does not matter in which way an HTML page is parsed, since there is no
code that is being executed - there is nothing that is being "performed".
This is no different from how a computer program in a programming language
works. A BASIC program can very well be parsed backwards; it is not the
parsing that matters. A BASIC interpreter could very well parse the BASIC
program in any way it wishes to and build an internal representation of it
before it actually executes the program.

It is the actual execution that matters - and this is exactly what is
missing in HTML. You might think that the web browser rendition process
could be seen as an execution of the HTML text, but it is not. The HTML
text will only be rendered, much like a GIF or a JPEG image is rendered.
Or do you consider JPEG and GIF programming languages as well? They
also describe something (pictures) that are rendered by a computer
program. What about Microsoft Word .doc files?