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I guess the question is self-explanatory, but I'm wondering whether HTML qualifies as a programming language (obviously the "L" stands for language).

The reason for asking is more pragmatic—I'm putting together a resume and don't want to look like a fool for listing things like HTML and XML under languages, but can't figure out how to classify them.

nicael
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    Maybe you shouldn’t call it *programming languages* but simply *languages*, *technologies*, *experience* or *skills*. – Gumbo Feb 02 '10 at 17:55
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    Hi. I am using Java EE, and I am programming in XML, it seems... – whirlwin May 29 '12 at 18:57
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    No, programming languages should be turing complete. HTML is not turing complete. – Arunav Sanyal Jul 09 '16 at 20:57
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    HTML is akin to the punched musical sheets fed into an automatic piano, for browsers. In a sense it is browser programming language, i.e. it instructs the browser what to show. Many languages these days have high-level lambda constructs like LINQ in C# that tell the computer what to do not how. The evolution of programming languages are moving towards a more declarative nature, languages like Kotlin is evident of this. – aggaton Nov 03 '17 at 22:27
  • As a curio, Rule 110 has been implemented using CSS 3 and it has been shown to be Turing complete. – aggaton Nov 03 '17 at 22:37
  • @aggaton that's what I have been thinking before start searching... The base of computer is some how markup, its marking bits, and some chip says they're instruction, it's programming a browser, although it's limited and do so using integration manner. I don't know what Turing complete, or even Turing mean. BTW 15 years ago people around me define it as programming language, and im not sure people at those times made any rule that programming language should own condition and loop. I think it's more person to person perspective wise that they define and call it a programming language or not. – Hassan Faghihi Apr 01 '20 at 07:03
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    @Arunav Sanyal , who told you that? The English definition of "to program" is "to give instructions". No mention of Turing completeness will ever be given in any definition, unless it is used purely as an example (like for example loops and calculations are examples). "Turing completeness" is not a dependency of "programming" and never has been (and never will be). You use programming languages to give instructions. You do not perform calculations or loops with C++, the computer does that. That is why you gave the instruction for something to be done (via the use of programming language). – Cheesus Toast Nov 23 '20 at 16:35
  • No not, simply you can't implement an algorithm and do the mathematical calculations you desire. It's not designed for that purpose. – Davut Gürbüz Feb 15 '21 at 12:48
  • If I remember right, Turing-complete requires infinite memory. To quote [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine), "**Nearly** all programming languages are Turing complete **if the limitations of finite memory are ignored**," implying that no real programming language is truly TC and not all "programming languages," ignoring memory, are TC. – General Grievance Nov 08 '22 at 22:12

15 Answers15

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No, HTML is not a programming language. The "M" stands for "Markup". Generally, a programming language allows you to describe some sort of process of doing something, whereas HTML is a way of adding context and structure to text.

If you're looking to add more alphabet soup to your CV, don't classify them at all. Just put them in a big pile called "Technologies" or whatever you like. Remember, however, that anything you list is fair game for a question.

HTML is so common that I'd expect almost any technology person to already know it (although not stuff like CSS and so on), so you might consider not listing every initialism you've ever come across. I tend to regard CVs listing too many things as suspicious, so I ask more questions to weed out the stuff that shouldn't be listed. :)

However, if your HTML experience includes serious web design stuff including Ajax, JavaScript, and so on, you might talk about those in your "Experience" section.

brian d foy
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  • LaTeX also falls in this category, it is a Markup, not programming, language. – rlb.usa Mar 26 '10 at 19:32
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    @rib.usa Except that LaTeX is a set of routines in TeX, which is a programming language that happens to be used primarily in a markup fashion. – Michael Ekstrand Mar 26 '10 at 19:34
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    TeX is a Turing-complete language, so its classification as a programming language or markup language is a bit blurry. :) – mipadi Mar 26 '10 at 19:40
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    @Jason - but isn't it "initialism" rather than "initialization"? :) – JoeCool Mar 01 '11 at 22:31
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    Apparently, HTML5+CSS3 is turing complete too: http://lemire.me/blog/archives/2011/03/08/breaking-news-htmlcss-is-turing-complete/ – Bite code Dec 25 '11 at 20:15
  • yes and while some may put html as a skill, nobody puts things like YAML or LAtex... – ado Jun 13 '13 at 01:07
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    I used to put LaTeX as a skill, but because it's important in some domains. :) – brian d foy Jun 13 '13 at 09:07
  • @Jason: How is the term "HTML" **not** an acronym? –  Jun 05 '15 at 02:49
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    @SarahofGaia an acronym is when you say the letters as though it were a word (eg, NASA) where an initialization is where you say each individual letter (eg, HTML). It's a subtle difference, but one nonetheless. – Jason Jun 05 '15 at 04:52
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    Hmm... That is an interesting distinction you make. Nowhere have I ever been taught, or ever read, seen, or heard that distinction being made. In addition, although both the Encyclopædia Britannica and Oxford Dictionaries support that distinction, both the Oxford English Dictionary and Dictionary.com ("Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2015.") refute this distinction; and the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary doesn't even mention either. (1/2) –  Jun 05 '15 at 07:10
  • Perhaps it is relative to particular cultures or circles, or even varies from person to person or country to country. Personally, I go by the definition that an *initialism* is a **type** of *acronym*: where the latter is only defined as "a group of letters with each letter meaning a particular word", the former is defined as "an acronym where each letter is spoken out distinctly." (2/2) –  Jun 05 '15 at 07:12
  • If this is the case, shouldn't there be a word for "the subset of acronyms" that are spoken as a word? – NewbornCodeMonkey Oct 02 '15 at 18:04
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    This answer is wrong. HTML is a domain specific language that does provide instruction for a computer to use (the instructions are interpreted by web browsers and used to control rendering and hyperlinking for websites. The instructions are further enhanced with CSS and JavaScript.) – Matthew Whited Oct 23 '15 at 10:35
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    html does have a very limited form of user input and control flow and in that sense it is a programming language with limited io capabilities. As a prove of concept i have written a little calculator in pure html - no js, no css (exept for styling): https://cdn.rawgit.com/Holger-Will/htmlcalc/master/htmlcalc.html This clearly is a program :-) so the language in which it is written must be a programming language. – Holger Will Oct 13 '16 at 08:59
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    Both imperative and declarative languages are used in programming. So markup could be considered a programming language because it's used in programming (as a verb, action in setting up a computer process). – Brandon Aug 17 '17 at 19:16
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    A programming language does NOT need to be turing complete. What would you call a language like Idris? Also, as others pointed out, HTML is a domain specific language. Every markup language is a programming language too. They just are declarative instead of imperative. But you still are programming the document. – bzim Mar 12 '18 at 15:13
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    Any person with a basic knowledge of simple English and a really basic understanding of computer science can see HTML is a programming language. Programming is a very simple umbrella term. It can be extremely simple. When people say it is not, it is due them implying that programming must have a certain level of complexity. Mark-up is instructions. Programming at its most basic is simply instructions to make something happen. People will manually create headings and paragraphs in a Word document. HTML will automate this process with instructions... that is the very core of basic programming. – Cheesus Toast Jun 03 '20 at 16:48
  • Not a programming language BUT a computer language. – quesadagranja Sep 09 '21 at 15:39
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YES, a declarative programming language.

You really want to list the most important things you know that are relative to the job you're applying for on your resume. If you list ASP.NET but don't list HTML, even though it's somewhat obvious, there are a lot of managers and/or HR types that will assume you don't know HTML since it's not listed. I've had it happen to me before.

Update - Some say no it isn't a programming language, and you may not agree with me on this, but regardless on a resume it IS a programming language. You get HR types looking at your resume before the hiring manager even sees it. If the manager says you need to know HTML, and it's not listed in the 'programming languages' section then the HR person may disregard you resume thinking you don't know it because it's not listed.

Update 6-8-2012: Any instruction that tells the computer to do something is a programming language. So even after all these years, I still stand by my answer. HTML is a programming language. Something that isn't a programming language would be XML.

Chris Pietschmann
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    If hello world is a program, then html pages are programs, since they are merely a more complex hello world. Ergo, html _is_ a programming language, since it instructs the computer on what to do. I am with this guy. – freespace Sep 28 '08 at 11:31
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    Not true. Even hello world has logic in it. Just because your favorite IDE prepares the necessary program structure under the covers, or only a few keywords are needed to print to the output, there is logic at work. I do agree with Chris here about HR though. – Ed S. Oct 01 '08 at 04:05
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    Voted because 1. it's 2009-04-01, and 2. I guess it's a declarative language that can express a certain subset of constant programs with no inputs, and 3. there's a serious point about how HR types will see the question. – Edmund Apr 01 '09 at 09:01
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    @freespace - by that definition, nearly everything is a programming language, which makes it a virtually useless classification. – Kaz Dragon Feb 02 '10 at 17:56
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    @freespace: That argument is nonsense. It is essentially that same as saying: Dogs have fur. Cats have fur. Therefore, cats are dogs. – James Curran Sep 20 '10 at 15:15
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    @Kaz Dragon - well, isn't that what programming is? Telling the computer how to do things? If you use a language for it, isn't it a programming language? – freespace Sep 20 '10 at 16:03
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    @James Curran that is not a valid analogy. A more apt analogy is furry animals have fur, cats have fur, cats are furry animals. Distinction here being that dogs are not the superset of cats, whereas programming languages are (as I argue here) the superset of HTML. – freespace Sep 20 '10 at 16:07
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    @freespace - as I said, that would be a useless classification. That would include, say, Notepad as a programming language because you're telling the computer how to display a set of text. In a language, no less. – Kaz Dragon Sep 21 '10 at 08:37
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    Like I said, HTML is a declarative programming language. Just like XAML. – Chris Pietschmann Sep 23 '10 at 14:23
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    @ChrisPietschmann declarative, yes. Programming, no. How will you write a loop in HTML? – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Jun 06 '12 at 15:47
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    Compared to C or Assembly one might not consider Visual Basic a programming language, but yet it is. – Chris Pietschmann Jun 08 '12 at 17:55
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    @freespace Programming is not telling the computer what to do, nor how to do it. Programming is laying out a set of instructions which the computer will execute in sequence to retrieve the input and then produce the output. The difference between "telling the computer what to do" and programming is the same as the difference between me telling you to pick up a pencil and actually manually firing the specific neurons necessary for you to perform such an action. Therefore, HTML is not a programming language. It has no executable elements. It simply describes an image. – Luke Oct 24 '12 at 13:48
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    However, I do appreciate that some non-tech-savvy people may mistake HTML for a programming language. I have experienced this in the past. – Luke Oct 24 '12 at 13:50
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    A keypress is an instruction that tells the computer to do something yet definately not a programming language. An html document is a document with markup not a program. – Pieter B Jun 20 '13 at 07:33
  • You'll see programming languages becoming more declarative, like in C#, you have LINQ that tells "what" should be done than telling "how" it should be done. So we cannot say that "telling what to do" is not programming. – kazinix Nov 20 '13 at 08:09
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    "Any instruction that tells the computer to do something is a programming language" - so writing a word document is programming? I'm marking the text and then the computer displays it the way I want to. – pambuk Feb 25 '14 at 16:15
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    "Something that isn't a programming language would be XML." Well, XSLT code is XML, and it's a turing-complete programming language. – Mathias Müller Feb 26 '14 at 20:34
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    There's two ways to define "programming languages". (1)Languages which are computitionally universal to a machine. Meaning the language can be used to instruct a machine of doing anything you would want that it would be capable of executing. (2)Languages which instruct a machine of its behaviour. Meaning the language can be used to influence the bahaviour of a machine, but it does not need to cover the full spectrum of computing capacity the machine provides. || In (1), HTML is not a programming language. In (2) it is. But never is HTML a programming language, while XML is not. – Didier A. Oct 14 '14 at 17:37
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    "Any instruction that tells the computer to do something is a programming language" - so my face in front of a webcam is programming? Me moving my mouse, striking keys, speaking into a mic are all exclusively programming? The deliberate use or exploitation of their intended features could _allow for programming_ but they themselves are not **intended** to be a programming language or method for executing instructions. See [Pong and Snake](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPcV9uIY5i4) programmed into SMBW for an example of using the SNES Controller / Game as a **programming language** ;) – rfoo Feb 02 '15 at 05:15
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    From you update saying that XML is not a programming language. If it's not, nor HTML. Html can be conceptualize like a XML data storage. Here I have a div node, and in this node I have a p node. This p node have an attribute class with the value "foo". A software then use these informations to output something. The output will never change if i don't change the data provided to the navigator. The system is fixed. – Guillaume Beauvois Aug 12 '16 at 14:04
  • programming languages doesn't necessarily have loops and doesn't have to be Turing complete: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_completeness – Waldo Alvarez Aug 27 '16 at 04:06
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    html does have a very limited form of user input and control flow and in that sense it is a programming language with limited io capabilities. As a prove of concept i have written a little calculator in pure html - no js, no css (exept for styling): https://cdn.rawgit.com/Holger-Will/htmlcalc/master/htmlcalc.html This clearly is a program :-) so the language in which it is written must be a programming language. – Holger Will Oct 13 '16 at 08:56
  • i honestly dont get why SO MANY people are disagreeing with you... folks it's a programming language. and you can add logic to it, that's what angular and reactjs does. – rbtLong Jun 24 '19 at 01:55
  • @Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen sure it can! have you heard of angular that allows you to add logic to the markup??? if's and fors are all possible – rbtLong Jun 24 '19 at 02:03
  • @rbtLong this question is 11 years old and HTML5 wasn’t born yet. Try HTML4 without javascript and then come back. – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Jun 24 '19 at 09:09
  • @Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen html was and will always be (at the very least) declarative language programming... – rbtLong Jun 24 '19 at 18:03
  • @rbtLong there are different strengths of programming languages. HTML4 was not even close to being Turing complete so even if declarative it wasn’t very useful without JavaScript (which is). HTML5 grew from a need... Try calculating fractals in HTML4 – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Jun 24 '19 at 21:48
  • @Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen why would it need to calculate fractals? it's usefulness is evident, hence it's evolution. Chris was correct, html is a programming language. a very popular and useful declarative programming language. – rbtLong Jun 25 '19 at 05:22
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    @rbtLong because that is one of the things that powerful programming languages can do. HTML is a markup language, not a programming language (which is the distinction you seem to misunderstand). Javascript is a programming language. – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Jun 25 '19 at 07:35
  • I vote for yes it is Im not saying I have better reason than those who say it's not, but they didn't bring up good reason too. HTML is close to XML, and we saw Java folks, and today almost every language use tag called directive, tag helper... that are used for condition and loops, you may say it's marking for a compiler, or interpreter, but that compiler commands are some marke up for another language. If we use HTML and XML for limited capacity it doesn't mean they are limited, it's up to writer of the code that interpret, that those marked up how many component and command provide. – Hassan Faghihi Apr 01 '20 at 07:17
  • @ChrisPietschmann Thank you for providing the correct answer. It is infuriating that this is not voted as best, and has a fraction the up-votes of the worst answer (which is supposedly the "best"). I will take a wild guess - you have, at the least, a degree in a computing subject similar to me. Your last paragraph says it all - programming can be utterly simple and can simply just "make something do something"! People are just inventing new definitions while violating basic English language. – Cheesus Toast Jun 03 '20 at 17:06
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    @Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen You are violating basic English language. You said: "Programming, no. How will you write a loop in HTML?" Where on earth did you get the impression that the basic English language word "programming" had some kind of dependency on the word "loop"?? WHERE? What dictionary? A loop is an EXAMPLE of something done in programming. (Computer) Programming (at least as far as the English language is concerned) is the process of using coded instructions to get something to do something. It is a really really simple word. Why are you trying to redefine English words? – Cheesus Toast Jun 03 '20 at 17:12
  • @CheesusToast This is not about english language (or we would be at https://english.stackexchange.com/) but about programming languages. It is rather simple - it is about how expressive a _programming_ language is; if it is Turing-complete or not. In other words, a computer science term, and not an English one. The former needs to be precise, the latter almost by definition is not. Perhaps read up a bit on theory? – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Jun 16 '20 at 13:12
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    I think the distinction here is HTML is not a _general purpose_ programming language. – Ryan Haney Aug 06 '20 at 16:39
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    How is HTML a programming language but not XML? – d2alphame Jan 25 '21 at 19:56
  • No not, you can't implement an algorithm and do the mathematical calculations you want. It's a browser dependent very bad markup language. XAML was a good XML based UI markup language. – Davut Gürbüz Feb 15 '21 at 12:40
  • IMHO, the right perspective here is to distinguish between imperative (procedural/object-oriented) and declarative languages. I've been learning Prolog at university, and googled this thread from that state of mind. A Prolog program is just as untraditional as HTML: you aren't precisely giving a direct sequence of (high-level) instructions to execute, and yet if you feed it to a Prolog front-end, you can query it to get useful output based on your Prolog code. HTML seems the same: you feed it to the browser, and its output follows, perhaps after user interaction. Also, it has no loops. – Mew Feb 09 '22 at 16:01
  • @Luke Then by your definition a DSL is not a programming language because you are not going down to the neurone level of telling the computer what to do. – Matias Cicero Nov 08 '22 at 20:42
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No, the clue is in the M - it's a Markup Language.

Jonny Buchanan
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On some level Chris Pietschmann is correct. SQL isn't Turing complete (at least without stored procedures) yet people will list that as a language, TeX is Turing complete but most people regard it as a markup language.

Having said that: if you are just applying for jobs, not arguing formal logic, I would just list them all as technologies. Things like .NET aren't languages but would probably be listed as well.

Peter Mortensen
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Martin Beckett
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The 'M' stands for a 'Markup'. It's a 'Markup Language' not a programming language. Some people will disagree with this, but my opinion is that if it lacks logical constructs (conditional branching, iteration, etc) its not really a programming language.

As for the resume, I would suggest putting HTML and XML under a section like 'Technologies'. I usually have a section like this where I list things like version control software, OS's I've developed for, build systems, etc.

Mark Roddy
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No, HTML is a not a programming language. It is called "markup" for that reason.

If you're going to say that HTML is a programming language, then you might as well include things such as word documents, as they too are based on ML, or 'Markup Language'.

Simply put--HTML defines content!

null
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houston
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    How could this is bold comparable to **this is bold**? If HTML is not programming language, fine, but working with HTML != working with Word Documents. – kazinix Nov 20 '13 at 08:13
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    Word is an Application. Rich Text Files or the various other files word produces could be (and are) considered domain specific languages. And if you know RTF or any other complex markup (especially some of the older binary based formats you should be happy to put that in your resume. Those beasts get pretty complex.) – Matthew Whited Oct 23 '15 at 10:59
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    HTML is a programming language - as simple as it is, it still falls into the umbrella term of programming language. As I said before, very often in Word you manually configure what is a paragraph or heading etc. In HTML you "automate" the process by telling/ instructing the browser to make something a heading or paragraph (along with all the other instructions that are available). Programming can be very simple or really complex. There is no set parameter for how complex something needs to be for it to be "programming". It simple need to be something that makes something do something... – Cheesus Toast Jun 03 '20 at 16:56
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I think not exactly a programming language, but exactly what its name says: a markup language. We cannot program using just pure, HTML. But just annotate how to present content.

But if you consider programming the act of tell the computer how to present contents, it is a programming language.

brian d foy
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paulosuzart
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    "But if you consider programming the act of tell the computer how to present contents, it is a programming language." At that point, one might as well call everything programming because that's basically what causality is. xD –  Jun 05 '15 at 08:22
  • But, HTML specifically does not tell anything how to present its contents. It says what things in the text are, and the presentation is left to the thing interpreting it. For example, consider a hypothetical Table of Contents browser. It takes the HTML as input but only shows the headings. The HTML didn't tell it to do that. Something else made that decision. – brian d foy Jan 14 '22 at 15:16
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In the advanced programming languages class I took in college, we had what I think is a pretty good definition of "programming language": a programming language is any (formal) language capable of expressing all computable functions, which the Church-Turing thesis implies is the set of all Turing-computable functions.

By that definition, no, HTML is not a programming language, even a declarative one. It is, as others have explained, a markup language.

But the people reviewing your resume may very well not care about such a formal distinction. I'd follow the good advice given by others and list it under a "Technologies" type of section.

Michael Ekstrand
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    Not so good definition because C is not Turing complete while HTML5 + CSS3 are, so I would just say HTML is not 'general' programming language, just a highly specialized one. – Serge Aug 20 '18 at 21:17
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    @Serge In what meaningful sense is C not Turing-complete, but HTML5+CSS3 are? – Michael Ekstrand Aug 22 '18 at 15:11
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    available ram of C is limited 2 ** num_bits(size_t) depending on standard and implementation this could vary, probably some loopholes exist, but let 's say Turing completeness of C is doubtful. The proof for HMTL+CSS completeness on stackoverflow expects some level of human involment, so probably not 100% convincing. Either way highly unlikely languages from Powerpoint animation to music notation are found Turing Complete https://www.gwern.net/Turing-complete – Serge Aug 24 '18 at 03:02
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    I don't think limiting to finite memory is a useful objection to considering C (or any other programming language) to be Turing complete. _Any_ actually-implemented system will be limited to finite memory, including HTML5+CSS3 or PowerPoint. – Michael Ekstrand Aug 24 '18 at 22:36
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    we talk about language not actual implemented system (number of atoms/particles in observable universe is probably limited) – Serge Aug 25 '18 at 19:15
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    [Here's an explanation](https://cs.stackexchange.com/a/60978/85498) as to why @Serge is completely right here. Make sure to check out the nice discussion in the comments too. I particularly want to highlight a comment of `D.W.`'s: `it makes no sense to speak about "practical" and "computability" in the same sentence. Computability (and Turing-completeness) is not about what it is practical; it is about what is mathematically true. You seem to want to talk about what holds "for all engineering purposes" but that's not what Turing-completeness is about.` – Elliott Aug 31 '21 at 13:16
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I think that it definitely has its place on a resume. Knowledge of HTML is valuable, and there really is a lot to know, what with cross-browser compatibility issues and standards which should be followed.

I wouldn't list HTML under "programming languages" alongside C# or something, but it's worth noting your experience.

brian d foy
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sledgebox
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No - there's a big prejudice in IT against web design; but in this case the "real" programmers are on pretty firm ground.

If you've done a lot of web design work you've probably done some JavaScript, so you can put that down under 'programming languages'; if you want to list HTML as well, then I agree with the answer that suggests "Technologies".

But unless you're targeting agents who're trying to tick boxes rather than find you a good job, a bare list of things you've used doesn't really look all that good. You're better off listing the projects you've worked on and detailing the technologies you used on each; that demonstrates that you've got real experience of using them rather than just that you know some buzzwords.

Peter Mortensen
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Simon
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I get around this problem by not having a "programming languages" section on my resume. Instead I label it simply as "languages", and I stick HTML and CSS at the end. I'd rather make life easier for the reviewer so that they can see whether mine checks-off all their requirements.

Only fools would disregard an applicant because he or she listed HTML under "languages" instead of some other label, especially since there is no industry standard. And who wants to work for fools?

David
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    I would rather put it under 'technologies' – d2alphame Jan 25 '21 at 20:10
  • Only fools would list their knowledge in the wrong sections; it would show they don't know what they're talking about (or rather, writing). – foo Jan 15 '23 at 18:39
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Well, L is for language, but it doesn't imply programming language. After all, English or French are (natural) languages too! ;-)

As said above, put them under a subsidiary section, Technology seems to be a good term.

(Looking at my own resume, not updated in a while) I have made a section just called "Languages", so I can't get wrong... :-D
I have put "(X)HTML and CSS, XML/DTD/Schema and SVG" at the end of the section, clearly separated.

In French, I have a section "Langages" (programming and markup) and another "Langues" (French/English). In the English version, I titled both at "Languages", which is clumsy now that I think of it, although context clarify this. I should find a better formulation.

PhiLho
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HTML is in no way a programming language.

Programming languages deals with ''proccessing functions'', etc. HTML just deals with the visual interface of a web page, where the actual programming handles the proccessing. PHP for example.

If anyone really knows programming, I really can't see how people can mistake HTML for an actual programming language.

brian d foy
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    That's just not true. A programming language simply provides instructions for a computer to do something. HTML is a domain specific language that instructs a computer for the basic layout of a hypertext document. – Matthew Whited Oct 23 '15 at 10:55
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    Then a txt file instructs the computer what text to display – whackamadoodle3000 Jun 19 '17 at 22:10
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    @CheesusToast , I just created a python program. It shows Blue color on the screen when I write `show blue` and green colour when I type `show green`. Did I create a new **programming language** with that? The point is , your browser is the main program that takes input in the form of HTML and provides output. By your logic, every input to a real program can be considered as a new **programming language** – Jdeep Oct 23 '20 at 04:27
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    @ Noah J. Standerson , referencing the first sentence: that is the fundamental principle behind a programming language, yes. Your program is an interpreter. You said: "By your logic, every input to a real program can be considered as a new programming language", not necessarily but possibly. I am referring to HTML, not your very simply program (which could indeed potentially be a programming language if it were developed to the point of HTML). In HTML you give instructions for something to be done with the use of a language. That is the fundamentals behind programming languages. – Cheesus Toast Nov 23 '20 at 16:24
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In recruitment terms, having been on both sides of the fence, definitely put HTML under 'programming languages', or perhaps more safely under 'technologies'

Yes, we all know that it is a Markup Language and not a Programming Language. but a) Recruitment Agencies don't know and don't care, and b) employers don't know and don't care. Really.

And pointing out their ignorance will only serve you ill. And the techies who eventually see your CV will be grateful for a candidate who has heard of HTML, and won't worry about the taxonomy.

Honestly, it isn't an issue.

CJM
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    Techies who will see your resume will be grateful for a candidate who has heard of HTML? I haven't graduated from college yet, but I already scorn people who list HTML under programming languages. But to each his own I guess. – MiseryIndex Nov 20 '09 at 14:04
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    If you're planning on working for anyone else once you graduate, Misery, don't forget to practice hiding the scorn so you don't fail every interview due to "applicant acts like a jerk" :) – Peter Recore Jan 14 '10 at 19:56
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    A bit harsh, Peter, but you might be right - on a serious note, you will often be faced with misguided interviewers; tactfully disagreeing might get you the job, but if you appear contemptuous and superior you are going to miss out - regardless of how 'right' you might be. – CJM Jan 15 '10 at 09:50
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    Markup can be used to give instructions (programming). An example of that would be HTML. HTML code is used to provide instructions for an automated task. When you use something like MS word you will manually make things, for example, a heading. We instruct a browser to treat a string of text as a heading with the use of code, in the form of markup (i.e. h1 tags or similar). – Cheesus Toast Nov 23 '20 at 16:28
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List it under technologies or something. I'd just leave it off if I were you as it's pretty much expected that you know HTML and XML at this point.

Jon
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