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

[wildstar <wildstar128@hotmail.com>]

"White Flame \(aka David Holz\)" <whiteflame52@y.a.h.o.o.com> wrote in
news:bd7km9$1fcs$1@barad-dur.nas.com: 


> No reference defines what a computer programming language is.  It's an
> industry term, agreed upon to mean (and reinforced by English grammar)
> "a language that can program a computer".  There is a general
> industry-acknowledged distinction between languages which program
> applications (data sets like HTML), and languages which program the
> computer itself (like C++).  Yes, there are also grey areas, but HTML
> suits the definition of "application programming language" (a language
> which programs an application), and not "computer programming
> language".  This is all basic grammar, dictionary definitions, and
> industry use of industry-specific terms which are not quantified in
> any reference. 
> 
> All that a reference is is one person's opinion who happens to be
> agreed upon.  So since you can't seem to find a suitable definition
> for the term "computer programming language" in the references that
> you trust (and I doubt you will ever really find one), and most people
> here seem to be saying things similar to the above paragraph, let this
> be your "reference", or else view the dictionary as simply an
> "opinion" in the same way as you denounce people's semantic deductions
> in this thread as simply "opinions". :-P 
> 
> --
> White Flame (aka David Holz)
> http://www.white-flame.com/
> (spamblock in effect)
> 

Thank you,let this thread die. To add to that. Randy, since you seem to 
have decided on the definition of HTML as a programming language. That is 
acceptable by you to think to yourself. Though, what you say in a quiz 
test may determine whether you get a job or not in programming. I would 
say that to some degree in came be considered programming if that HTML is 
a sequence of instructions to tell the viewer program (HTML viewer/Web 
Browser) to perform. In past experience, I thought an internal code in 
the browser to perform the task of fetching tags to be interpreted. HTML 
doesn't program the computer but the tags instruct the browser/viewer how 
to layout the content to the screen and define what are links and what 
they link to. So abstractively you may consider it like programming but 
it is to me more like describing then instructing. The viewer pretty much 
already is given the instructions and the viewer kind of instructs itself 
what to do with a tag. We'll leave it at that but remember when you get 
into the field, you will have to really know what people generally see. 
To some sense, one may take a general definition abstractively or more 
definitively. It is like a piece of art. Again a dictionary is a opinion 
because no single dictionary defines the meaning of words as rules unless 
it is connected to a tangable object. For the most part the definition of 
words in any language is defined individually. It all is in how you 
perceive the meaning of words. Every words meaning varies from person to 
person just like every syntax in BASIC may vary just like POKE and PEEK 
varies. So in the perception of meaning, Lisa was just as right as I was 
in the word "workstation".