Enlivo Posted September 13, 2016 Report Share Posted September 13, 2016 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkchild Posted September 13, 2016 Report Share Posted September 13, 2016 I would consider it a different kind of language; not a spoken one though. Your friend is brilliant to give such an answer on an interview Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
宇崎ちゃん Posted September 13, 2016 Report Share Posted September 13, 2016 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
111kg Posted September 13, 2016 Report Share Posted September 13, 2016 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
宇崎ちゃん Posted September 13, 2016 Report Share Posted September 13, 2016 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lingua Franca Posted September 13, 2016 Report Share Posted September 13, 2016 Normally they are referred to as programming languages but to say that they are an actual language, I don't know. I don't think that you could have a full conversation with some one in a programming language. I see it as a way of getting your computer to do what you want it to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babelle Posted September 20, 2016 Report Share Posted September 20, 2016 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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