Clearly any language that has enough features to write the logic to
implement a Universal Turing Machine should be called a programming
language, since only the hardware speed and memory limitations and
limitations of specific implementations of the language on hardware, not
the language itself, limits what can be computed.
I would argue that any language that lacks the capability to save and
manipulate variable values clearly is not a programming language. A
language with that capability but without some ability for repetition
(loops or recursion) or without conditional logic might be a programming
language, but its usefulness would be extremely limited.
In between? If you can pick multiple simple algorithms that can be
implemented in some form in all the commonly-known programming languages
and none of thos algorithms can be expressed in a language in question,
then pretty good odds that language shouldn't be called a programming
language.
JC Ewing
On 11/13/24 6:42 AM, Seymour J Metz wrote:
What about loops or recursion?
--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3
עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי
נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר
________________________________________
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of Jack Zukt
<0000059cd493dd41-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2024 3:17 AM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: What is a "programming language"? Was:: Modifying JCL on the fly
External Message: Use Caution
Hi
Would you call DFSORT a programing language? It has conditional logic,
variables, it can compute, change data...
Regards
Jack
On Mon, Nov 11, 2024, 00:16 Phil Smith III <li...@akphs.com> wrote:
Radoslaw Skorupka wrote, in part:
Short answer: NO WAY.
However you can use some *programming* language for that, including REXX.
Simple explanation:
JCL is *not* a programming language.
JCL "piece of code" is called job, not program.
First, I'm not disagreeing with you here. But this does make me wonder one
more time, as I have in the past: "Just what IS required for something to
be a 'programming language'"?
Does it have to have loops? Variables? A compiler (I'd say "no, or various
scripting languages might not qualify", and I don't think anyone would buy
that)? Does HTML qualify? It has the L-word but that doesn't prove
anything. Etc. I know people who think JCL does count. Can we prove them
right or wrong by some objective definition?
Thoughts?
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Joel C Ewing
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