---
layout: post
title: "HTML Is Not a Programming Language…"
date: 2025-02-10 18:09:04
categories: Web Development
meta: "Is HTML a programming language? In this short post, I explore why HTML is powerful, fundamental, and essential—but not a programming language."
toc: false
---

I adore HTML. I actually, really do. It’s the [performance
engineer](/consultancy/)’s dream. But I don’t think it’s a programming language.
At least not in any useful sense.

There’s a saying, [with a pretty amusing
backstory](https://www.the42.ie/brian-odriscoll-tomato-fruit-salad-quote-2051370-Apr2015/),
that goes something like <q>knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is
not putting it in a fruit salad</q>. That sums up my take on the debate
perfectly. Being ‘technically correct’, while important to many, is usually
pedantic, unproductive, and not very helpful.

The definition of _programming language_ is not formally agreed upon, but if
you’re keen enough to bend it to fit HTML, you will probably be successful.

But what does that achieve? Really?

HTML is fundamental, it’s powerful, and it’s _fast_, **but it is easy**. Being
good at HTML—which I would argue I am!—is more about having [a good
memory](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element) than being
able to think in complex or abstract patterns.

I adore HTML. I much prefer it over anything else! But I wouldn’t call it
a programming language.

If I was at a dinner party or social function, and my (nascent) partner got
talking to someone who writes code that launches rockets or manages banking
software—a real software engineer—and she said to them <q>Oh! You must meet
Harry! He’s a software engineer, too!</q>, I would be mortified. I couldn’t
[hold
a candle](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/can-t-hold-a-candle-to)
to that. I wouldn’t want to!

I adore HTML. But it isn’t a programming language.

I wish more people took HTML more seriously. I wish more people were good at
HTML and understood its power and capabilities. I wish more people knew why HTML
is so fast and why it’s almost always preferred. It’s knowledge that’s made me
[a good living](/services/)!

I adore HTML, but I don’t think it counts as a programming language at all. And
that’s fine—it doesn’t need to.

If you think differently to me, if you can make the definition of _programming
language_ fit, that’s absolutely fine. But, colloquially, I don’t think it’s
helpful at all.

I adore HTML ❤️