• lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    4217·
    6 days ago

    That’s the etymological fallacy. The name itself doesn’t determine the meaning. According to that logic, python isn’t a programming language either but a snake

    • Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.orgEnglish
      25·
      6 days ago

      The name itself doesn’t determine the meaning.

      The name in this case is defined by the meaning if you will. Programming languages are used to write programs. A HTML file is much closer to a PDF than to what can be considered a program.

      Also fun fact python is named after the comedy group Monty Python rather than the snake.

      • modeler@lemmy.world
        29·
        6 days ago

        Actually, PDF is a turing complete programming language.

        PDF is a simplification and wrapper around the computer language PostScript - a PostScript or PDF doc literally runs on the printer or computer and outputs the rasterisation of the thing you want to print.

        PostScript is language based around a stack. You can define functions (which may be fully recursive) that run on the stack.

        Here’s a small example:

        /ANGLE {
   newpath
   100 0 moveto
   0 0 lineto
   100 50 lineto
   stroke
} def

10 setlinewidth
0 setlinejoin
100 200 translate
ANGLE

1 setlinejoin
0 70 translate
ANGLE

2 setlinejoin
0 70 translate
ANGLE

        As such, PDF that’s actually similar to Python, and HTML is closer to something like a JSON or XML document.

        Note however that HTML can contain Javscript or WASM programs, but these are embedded rather than features of HTML.