What I find so annoying about this debate is that one side desperately wants to call CSS a "programming" language so people who only do CSS can still be "programmers", while the other side wants it to not be programming, so they can keep the club more exclusive.
Both positions are extremely stupid because, at the end of the day, whether or not the label applies won't change the language, nor the skill you need to master it.
I think the debate should be "Can we compare CSS with Programming?". And I'd say yes; being really good at CSS isn't worth less than being really good at programming. For both you need to be smart, to have a good mental model of the internal logic of the language, to put in the effort to learn the tools and best practices, etc. etc. etc.
What I find so annoying about this debate is that one side desperately wants to call CSS a "programming" language so people who only do CSS can still be "programmers", while the other side wants it to not be programming, so they can keep the club more exclusive.
Both positions are extremely stupid because, at the end of the day, whether or not the label applies won't change the language, nor the skill you need to master it.
I think the debate should be "Can we compare CSS with Programming?". And I'd say yes; being really good at CSS isn't worth less than being really good at programming. For both you need to be smart, to have a good mental model of the internal logic of the language, to put in the effort to learn the tools and best practices, etc. etc. etc.
Amen.
This is why the will to define CSS as a programming language or not is moot in this context.
People that code in CSS should be respected for the work they do solving problems. That isn't more or less important for the final sollution.
People should be respected as Long as they are good with what they do.
So yes, if CSS or HTML is programming languages should not matter if you and your work should be respected.
I do have much more respect of a good CSS coder then a bad Java programmer.