preliminaries

Languages that can be used to communicate with computers are called computer languages. In order to understand this we must be able to define language, and communication.

We can define language as systems of symbols - symbolical  systems - used for communication. What, then, is communication?

Let me begin by suggesting that communication is an interaction between minds. In that case, what are minds? I'll say a mind is a container, something that can contain information. And what is information? I'll say that information is imagery.

This last suggestion may be controversial, but I think it can be defended. At least in terms of the construct I'm developing here, consider two minds, and we wish each to contain the same or, at least, similar images.

Now it could be that something exists outside of the two minds, and both minds could, using some sort of input device, incorporate into themselves the same or a similar image that is produced by the same external source. But what if the image we wish the two minds to both contain is the product of one of those minds, and exists only in that mind.

In this latter case the one mind could use a language to, as the process is described, describe the image in question, and the second mind could process that description into an image. The result might be, and perhaps with some degree of reliability would be, that the two minds will now contain if not the same image, at least similar images, with respect, that is, to the specific item of information that has been communicated.

Applying these ideas to computing, we ought first to agree that a computer is a mind, as minds have been defined here. I would suggest that this definition of what a computer is need not be limited to what I have written here, but that is a question for another time. For now, if we can agree that a computer is a mind as minds are defined here, we can proceed, and discuss communication between computers and human users, who, if the reader will allow, can also be defined as being minds, and, given this, we will want to discuss computer languages.

A language type called a markup language has become fundamental to computing, and we will be using a markup language, Hypertext Markup Language, as a framework for the experiments I have proposed, this because we have at our disposal a program which can "run" Hypertext Markup Language, the web browser. The term used here, "run", refers to the process mentioned earlier whereby a mind processes, as I termed it there, a communication, in order to generate within itself some version of the imagery the communication was intended to introduce into the receiving mind. We might also want, before continuing in more detail, to discuss why a program is required to "run" a language. From what I understand every computer understands some dialect, particular to its type, of a language that is a product of the computer's physical structure, a language called Machine Language, so instructions can be provided to the computer, by some means, that are written in that language, and the computer can run those instructions, but Machine Language is difficult for a human to use - to write in, or to interpret, so, at the outset, simple programs are written in Machine Language which allow the computer to interact with humans in a way that, if still rather esoteric, is more natural to humans. Then these languages are used to, as it were, teach the computer to interact with humans in ways that are more or less very natural to humans, in a progression of steps. Readers will note that I am not expert in any of the more esoteric languages, or certainly in Machine Language, and I don't intend to give the impression that I am, or to pretend to be, and, what is more, most readers are likely to already know these things about computers, but some may not, since it is my purpose to write for anyone who is interested, and in a useful and comprehensible way for any such person. Then, too, I write of these matters in part in the way of a complaint, or lament, that I know so little, and that all of the more fundamental things are so shrouded in mystery, for me. What is related to this last point is this: that more expert readers might be interested in the approach I am taking of building up from what I hope are the most basic levels at which the subject can be understood, in case they were interested in teaching the subject this way - something I would like to make a more elaborate case for, perhaps if I can build my understanding more - and my approach might give them some ideas with regard to that.

At any rate, the text editor is one of these intermediate levels of functionality with which programmers have provided us, and we can use it to write code in markup languages, and for this purpose there is a symbol, called, perhaps, braces, which is fundamental to markup languages: <>.

Now, if you will imagine some letters or words place between these braces, the meaning of that, which originates in a system for describing the structure of language generally, is something along the lines of "this combination of letters". This would be used in some kind of statement indicating the meaning of that combination of letters.

We could then write, from Wikipedia, "is the colour between violet and green on the optical spectrum of visible light."

This is merely to in some way document the origin of the use of braces in markup languages. The use of braces in these languages seems to diverge from the kind of usage I've described, but perhaps knowing of this origin will help readers new to the concept to understand it a little.

At any rate, in Hypertext Markup Language, something like <img> indicates the user's intent to insert into some document which is being described ... an image. <span> indicates the user's intent to insert some collection of items, <div> indicates the user's intent to insert a rectangular area, into which other items can be inserted, <p> indicates the user's intent to insert a paragraph, <br> indicates the user's intent to insert a line feed or break, <i> indicates the user's intent to insert italicized text, and there are other such symbols, which are generally called tags.