Stan Kelly-Bootle, in his article in ACM Queue magazine, questions the use of the term "programming languages" to categorize the programming syntax we use to create applications. He says "many linguists consider programming languages to be the most egregious misnomer since the Big Bang (which I parochially date to 1949 when the Cambridge EDSAC I passed the perfect benchmark by listing hundreds of random numbers!)." Is Stan just catering to the larger community of linguists? Is it possible to justify the use of the "language" term if developers use descriptive identifiers, macros, and comments? I have no problem saying I am a fan of all programming languages. I am constantly searching for new ways to program computers. I dream of one day talking to the computer to get the job done. What should we call them instead? Send along your own thoughts about what we might call these series of program statements that we have been using for more than 50 years.
Read Stan’s article - Linguae Francae.
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As a humorous aside, I’ve often wondered what a conversation between two people who only shared a common programming language, and not a real language, might sound like… "Gosub vodka?" "True."
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Language is for communicating ideas. Programming is for operating machinery, and until the day machines have consciousness, and can spontaneously communicate the fruits of that consciousness, programming will remain simply a set of instructions, virtual gears, no more an instance of communication than when you turn the steering wheel of your car and it goes in a different direction.
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