0
\$\begingroup\$

I was going to give the green tick mark to the winning submission of this challenge, but I am unsure what to do. The shortest submission is this, which claims to use "Windows language", but I doubt that Windows can be considered a language.

What do you think? I know our official definition of programming language, but I don't see if/how it allows or rules out "Windows" as a language.

\$\endgroup\$
8
  • \$\begingroup\$ If anything, I'd say that Windows is an interpreter. We don't go around calling "gcc" a language... \$\endgroup\$ Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 22:42
  • \$\begingroup\$ @AdmBorkBork I think that argument may not be valid. We do define languages by their implementations. So there's "GCC C", "TCC C", etc \$\endgroup\$ Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 22:45
  • 4
    \$\begingroup\$ And what language is being implemented by windows. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 22:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ @fəˈnɛtɪk That's a better argument \$\endgroup\$ Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 22:46
  • \$\begingroup\$ Yeah, that's a better way of phrasing what I was intending. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 22:50
  • \$\begingroup\$ @AdmBorkBork Your wording was fine. I got confused because I thought GCC was a C compiler. Now I see it includes many languages \$\endgroup\$ Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 22:52
  • \$\begingroup\$ @fəˈnɛtɪk Batch \$\endgroup\$ Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 22:57
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @ГригорийПерельман I don't believe that printscreen is a valid batch command. Want to try again? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 22:59

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
8
\$\begingroup\$

If we allow "Windows" as a programming language on the basis that it contains a shell, why not allow "Computer" as a programming language on the basis that you can run an OS with a shell on it? And then the whole question of what is or isn't a programming language becomes moot, because if it can form part of a system which includes a computer then it's ok...

So no, it's absurd to claim that Windows is a language.

\$\endgroup\$
4
  • 6
    \$\begingroup\$ I have a computer, so that makes me a programming language, right? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Mar 21, 2017 at 16:14
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @mbomb007, exactly. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Mar 21, 2017 at 16:18
  • \$\begingroup\$ Aren't exe files what makes windows a language? It contains commands that windows parses and executes. (I agree though, that keyboard shortcuts isn't an "input" to windows) \$\endgroup\$ Commented Mar 21, 2017 at 18:27
  • \$\begingroup\$ @NathanMerrill Windows doesn't do anything besides loading the executable and any libraries it needs. Your processor does the actual computation. The machine language is the actual programming language here - Windows and your processor are the tools used to execute the program. When writing a C program, you wouldn't consider bash to be the programming language, but it is a tool you use to compile, link, and execute the program. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Mar 22, 2017 at 3:22

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.