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Re: Your XML document is a programming language

• From: "Bill Kearney" <wkearney@gmail.com>
• To: "xml-dev OASIS" <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
• Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2013 10:24:24 -0400

And what purpose does it serve to use what many would rightly consider the 
incorrect use of the term "programming language" to describe a document 
format.

Just how far down the rabbit hole (or up one's own gastrointestinal tract) 
does one have to go before the logic of that makes any sense whatsoever?

Yadda, yadda, yadda, everything is or isn't a "programming language".

Yet in the context of getting information 'handled', the "programming 
languages" used are quite a bit more detailed than that of a stylesheet or a 
document format.  Now does this mean the layers of abstraction above the 
bare iron do or don't count as "programming languages"?  Just how high or 
low on the abstraction layers would one have to go in order to validly claim 
something as a "programming language"?

Well, it would depend entirely on the audience with which you're trying to 
curry favor, wouldn't it?  Trying to bullshit one's way into having their 
own favored approach considered by "their audience" is often littered with 
creatively provocative and misleading use of language.  Like calling XML a 
programming language.

So what audience is it you're seeking to convince (and I mean than in 
pejorative 'con' sense) of this nonsense?

-Bill Kearney

-----Original Message----- 

Don't let the angle brackets and element names deceive you, it is a 
programming language.

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Your XML document is a programming language
    • From: Hans-Juergen Rennau <hrennau@yahoo.de>

• References:
  • Your XML document is a programming language
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>