Originally posted by reScript
Trying to qualify the word language with the 'mark-up' prefix merely underlines how even the creators couldn't justify its meaning.
It is merely a simple method of encoding formatting and text.
It seems to some that with the addition of a few formatting commands a code becomes a language.
Alright, well it's because you're used to programming languages. Spanish is a language, English is a language, C++ is a language, SQL is a language, XML is a language, and so is HTML.
In fact, it's in the name, "HyperText Markup Language". Merriam-Webster defines a language as:
Originally posted by another user
the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community
HTML consists of words, or sequences of text, they can be pronounced and these "words" can indeed be combined. Also, they are most certainly understood by a community.
The thing a lot of people fail to understand is that HTML is not a programming language and is not meant to be in anyway whatsoever. There are a number of types of languages, markup, programming, and even the formal expression of mathematics or chemical equations could be considered a language as well.
So alas, HTML is a markup language, not a programming language, and it's not meant to be. The definition of markup in Wikipedia is:
Originally posted by another user
A markup language is a modern system for annotating a text in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from that text
HTML meets that definition.