17 February 2006
Programming Truth and Fiction
Posted by Mikhail Esteves under: General .
Programming Truth and Fiction
Fiction: HTML is not a programming language. It is a markup language. It lacks all necessary functionality (like if-else branching, variables, loops) to program in it, and in fact, even comparing it to a programming language completely misses the point of HTML’s beautiful simplicity.
Truth: Many managers in IT work environments understand HTML is a kind of programming language. And CSS is, too. Telling them that “HTML programming” is a contradiction in itself will only add to the confusion and should be avoided.
Fiction: In a programming language, you can express your thoughts; you can permanently lay down a rule system which can then be recreated on other machines, over and over. To some extent, the programmer simply manifests a detailed model of how the software is supposed to work, so that this model is turned to “virtual” reality.
Truth: Many IT managers know that programming is the thing that you do in some kind of text editor, with long lines of something called “code” which nobody understands really except the programmer (who was born with the talent of understanding it). It’s a bit like nerd magic, void of real meaning. Most definitely, the actual model of the software is contained in the PowerPoint accompanying the project, not the software itself. At best, the code is a symptom of the model of how the software is supposed to work as detailed in the PowerPoint or Word document – at worst, it introduces bugs on its way to “finalization” of the software.
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