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Programming: Language or not?


Enlivo

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Just a fun question out of curiosity. Would you consider programming language, such as Java, C++, etc as a "language"?

My friend decided to be cheeky during his job application/interview. He said he could speak 4 languages and when the interviewer asked him what they are, he replied, "English, Java, C++ and Phyton" (After writing down those 3 items in the skills column). Obviously, the interviewer wasn't amused, and my friend thinks a job offer is very unlikely at this point.

I personally wouldn't consider programming languages as a "language". It's just.. different, I guess. How about you guys?

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These are programming and/or scripting languages, which are different from spoken languages.
As a programmer I consider them languages, though I can understand that linguists can possibly disagree with me on this subject.

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They are languages, but they don't allow the average speaker to use them. What's really different about the spoken languages is the fact that they must be used 100% correct in order to work. If there is a single bug, the computer will not understand the "language" 100%, while if some user tries to speak in a certain language, but does mistakes, the other people will definitely try to understand at least what he's talking about.

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1 hour ago, 111kg said:

They are languages, but they don't allow the average speaker to use them. What's really different about the spoken languages is the fact that they must be used 100% correct in order to work. If there is a single bug, the computer will not understand the "language" 100%, while if some user tries to speak in a certain language, but does mistakes, the other people will definitely try to understand at least what he's talking about.

Could you provide more explanation here?
Because these 2 sentences disagree with each other.

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Programming languages are called languages because humans use them to communicate with machines or computers. Like human languages, programming languages have syntax that governs how a program or statement should be written. Violation of syntax leads to confusion and error in both cases.

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