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

"Tjoff Tjonk" <tjoff@tjonk.now> wrote in message
pan.2003.06.18.19.07.35.727341@tjonk.now">news:pan.2003.06.18.19.07.35.727341@tjonk.now...
> On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 14:33:55 -0500, Randy McLaughlin wrote:
> >> HTML doesn't describe computation - it's a markup language for web
pages;
> >> what exactly did you mean?  JavaScript?  ASP?
> >
> > HTML is programming, just as CP/M's sub files, dos bat files , IBM's old
> > JCL, Unix script files, etc.
>
> Randy... HTML is as much programming as English text is programming. HTML
> does not describe computation - it is a markup language for web pages.
>
> > There are plenty of every day tasks that are programs.  A program is a
> > defined "automatic" task.
>
> How do you write an automatic task in HTML? (Hint: you can't :-)

The automatic task is in describing to the client the tasks to display the
page the HTML code describes.  Like it or not it is a program.  The first
program people tend to learn is the "hello" program:  Just a program that
prints hello to the console.  The first HTML code anyone learns is just a
simple.  HTML is a limited "language", but it does contain enough structure
to be a language.  If we carry your logic through then nothing can be a
program that does not take two weeks to rewire our eniacs.

Many computer languages were created to bring the concept of simple English
to programming.  It has been an evolution with many strange mutations, but
computer languages continue to be created, HTML is just a small but useful
language for the GUI web environment.

<html>
<p>
hello
</p>
</html>