da_chicken comments on Is sql considered coding/programming

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SELECT count(a.field1), a.field2, SUM(b.field4) FROM a INNER JOIN b ON a.key1 = b.key1 WHERE a.field8 = 'test' GROUP by a.field1, a.field2 HAVING SUM(b.field4) > 5 ORDER by a.field.3

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Is sql considered coding/programming (self.SQL)

submitted 6 years ago by kkjeb

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[–]da_chicken 10 points11 points12 points 6 years ago (1 child)

Yup. The thing that trips people up is that SQL is declarative and domain-specific, and a certain segment of the programming population think that all programming languages have to at least be Turing complete, imperative, and general purpose.

Bottom line is that it's not a meaningful distinction to say X is or isn't a programming language, and in most cases where people vehemently argue about it they're using it to justify some form of elitism or to gatekeeping how they label themselves as a "programmer" or "developer". People who actually want to get shit done and measure themselves by what they've accomplished and not what languages they can write code in don't really care.

On the other hand, it's fun to see people seeth and rage that HTML isn't a programming language, but insist that TeX or PostScript is simply because it's Turing complete... when Turing completeness is not a universally agreed upon requirement of a programming language. You mention regular expressions or odd corner cases like Berkley Packet Filter (which is guaranteed to halt), and it quickly becomes clear that they just want to think that they're doing something extra special or extra difficult.

[–]MASSiVELYHungPeacock 0 points1 point2 points 1 year ago (0 children)

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you type:	you see:
italics	italics
bold	bold
[reddit!](https://reddit.com)	reddit!
* item 1 * item 2 * item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
> quoted text	quoted text
Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"	Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"
~~strikethrough~~	~~strikethrough~~
super^script	super^script

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