• tarix29@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    It doesn’t apply to HTML because HTML is fundamentally not code that runs, but rather a markup. It’s just like how licensing a book under the GPL would be weird and unnatural, because it represents someone’s words. JS is code that runs on your computer, just like any other program

    • refalo@programming.dev
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      6 months ago

      where is the line drawn though, and who gets to decide?

      MANY people say “html code” even if you consider that wrong.

      Is a shell script or python “code”? Because it doesn’t directly translate to machine code?

      See what I’m getting at?

      • tarix29@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        There is definitely a grey area, but HTML is pretty far away from it. HTML doesn’t “execute” and is very far from Turing completeness. You cannot write programs in it, and that is the key. Pure HTML is very much on the side of “rendering text” and not “running software.” Once we start talking about things like LaTex though, the line gets a lot harder to see. Note that whether HTML is “code” is irrelevant. The point is that whether it’s “code” or not, it is never a program.

        Edit: typo in “grey”

      • fossphi@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        Shell and python scripts are also code which is executed. HTML (at least back in the day) wasn’t really a network shipped executable, but more like markdown file which is just parsed and rendered

        • Murdoc@sh.itjust.works
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          6 months ago

          This feels a bit like the debate over whether a virus is “alive” or not. “But the virus/HTML has DNA/code.” “But it requires another cell/web browser in order to replicate/execute.” etc. 😄

          • fossphi@lemm.ee
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            6 months ago

            I really don’t think so.

            For the sake of simplicity, let’s go back to the time when websites were not full of JS and other modern web stuff

            You could in principle just wget the html file from a server and parse/render it without having to run that file. Like I said, it is like a simple markdown file.

            In terms of modern web, a crude analogy would be to look at the output from static site generators. In those, the server essentially doesn’t execute code, hence a lot of cloud providers can host your static sites for free

            • jack@monero.town
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              6 months ago

              I agree. Html could also be compared to a config file. Only parsed; it doesn’t provide new instructions (unlike python etc)