Dat One Dev

Posted on Jun 11

Is HTML not a Programming Language?

#html #webdev #css #javascript

Introduction

I was drinking lassi.
Wait, what's lassi in English? I don't know, go check yourself Wikipedia.

Whatever, I was drinking lassi and scrolling through YouTube, when I stumbled upon this video by Mr.PiwPiew.

After completing the video, I looked through the comment section, and then I came here to write this blog.

The top comment was made by @NFvidoJagg2. It was

HTML is not a programming language, it's an XML based markup language used to build webpages.

I can't describe how shocked I was at that time. All the time I didn't knew HTML isn't a programming language

Now you can call me dumb, but in the end I found out that it's not a programming language and now I am here to help those who still consider it as a programming language.

Why HTML is not a programming language.

First, if you already knew the full form of HTML, I am 60% sure you also know it's not a programming language, but I am one of those 40% who knew the full form and still considered it a programming language.

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language

Focus! guys, it is not HTPL (HyperText Programming Language) it's HTML (HyperText Markup Language)

It is not a programming language. It's a markup language used to structure content on the web.

What is a Markup Language?

Let me first give you some examples as these things are always around us

Markup Language	Purpose
HTML	Web page structure
XML	Data storage & transport
Markdown	Lightweight docs
LaTeX	Academic papers / math formatting
BBCode	Forums and message boards

Now there are 3 types of people.

XML

Who knows JSON
Who Doesn't Know JSON
Doesn't Care

If you know JSON, there is no way you don't know XML.. Even I know it.
If you don't know JSON. Then go check out my blog What is JSON
If you don't care, then you are on the wrong blog post, my man.

Markdown

If you are a technical writer like me or just chat the whole day in Discord, then you already know what this is.

But still a definition (pasted from Google), those who are still unknown.

Markdown is a lightweight markup language created by John Gruber in 2004, designed to simplify the process of formatting text, allowing writers to focus on content rather than complex markup.

BBCode

I don't know much about BBCode, but in recent Godot updates, BBCode was added to Godot for adding effects in text like rainbow, wav,e extra.

I highly recommend this Godot Documentation to know more - BBCode

LaTeX

LaTeX is a markup language used to create formatted documents, and it's built on top of TeX.

That's all I know, and that's all we need to know, cause we are driving off topic currently.

HTML

See one of the main reasons HTML is not HTPL is that it's ML.

Translation: See one of the main reasons HTML is not a programming language is that it's a markup language.

Some more reasons are:

No Logic or Flow Control:

Programming languages have things like loops (for, while), conditionals (if, else), and variables. HTML doesn’t have that. It just marks up text.

No Computation:

You can’t use HTML to calculate 2 + 2, but you can say 2 is

and + is

.

No Functions or Methods:

HTML doesn’t have reusable logic blocks or functions. It's more like a well-dressed document.

Ect.

If you understand more deeply that HTML doesn't have that thing that makes a programming language a programming language.

The only things you can do with HTML are set how a layout of site looks and let CSS and JavaScript do the rest of the work.

CSS

Wait a second, is CSS also not a programming language?

And yes, indeed, CSS isn't a programming language, nor is it a markdown language.

And as always answer is in the full form. - Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

It’s a style sheet language used to describe the presentation of content written in a markup language like HTML.

Like HTML, CSS also doesn’t have control flow, logic, or state changes.

Outro

That's all for HTML and CSS. Comment down your thoughts, and were you one of those 40% who knew the full form and believed it's a programming language?
If you want me to create a post on other markup languages, comment down.
And make sure to check out my YouTube channel.

Bye

DEV Community

Is HTML not a Programming Language?

Introduction