HTML as a language

[JOSEPH E. LAFERRIERE]

> > > Though it may take a while, HTML has to be considered as a future
>  > >  contender,
>  >
>  > This is not a language. ...
>
>  Maybe it's semantics, but tell me what HTML stands for and I'll rest my
>  case.

I see. So, you are serious here? Okay. So let's make this
a serious discussion. I do not know what HTML stands
for, but I would be surprised if the "L" did not stand
for "Language." Computer languages are languages in the
same sense that computer viruses (viri?) are viruses.
They have certain similarities to languages and viruses,
so we call them by these names because no better words exist
in English to describe them. But computer languaages
are not languages and computer viruses are not viruses.
Similarities only go so far. I saw an ad for a movie in
which a computer virus escapes from the computers and begins
infecting humans. The entire thought of this made
me much sicker than any virus (or bacterium) my
gastrointestinal tract has yet encountered. No! They do
not work like this.
   Computer "languages" are codes by which humans may
interact with computers. They are not means by which a
human may communicate with another human in the abscence
of a real language. I shall gladly pay you $10 if you
can write a plant description entirely in HTML or
translate one of Shakespeare's sonnets into the "language."
   Besides, anyone who watches Dr. Who knows that the
Daleks are due to conquer the Earth sometime in the
21st Century. Their slogan "Exterminate! Exterminate!
Exterminate!" So it does not matter what language we use.

--
Dr. Joseph E. Laferriere
who believes very strongly that one should
not have opinions.