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  • @Javier: What's your definition of a "programming language"? Commented Dec 20, 2010 at 12:53
  • @Christoffer Hammarström: if pressed to give a formal definition, i'd go with Turing-completedness; but informally i just say that a program does things, in response to some input. Usually, if there's no run-time if ... then construct and some way to repeat things a previously-unknown number of times, I'm inclined to say that it's not a programming language. Of course, there are some fringe languages that complicate definition; but HTML/CSS are far from that. Commented Dec 20, 2010 at 14:14
  • @Javier: Would you say that the canonical "Hello World" is a program, given that it takes no input? Commented Dec 20, 2010 at 14:25
  • @Javier: According to a discussion on Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…), early versions of Pixel Shader languages were not Turing-complete (no "generalised iteration capability", i.e. "some way to repeat things a previously-unknown number of times"). These were languages used only by programmers in programming the Graphics Processing Unit in popular games. Would you still say they were not programming languages? Commented Dec 20, 2010 at 14:53
  • @Christoffer: Hello world requires input: you have to initiate its execution. Your observation about Pixel Shader is intriguing, though. Commented Dec 20, 2010 at 16:15