Is "binary" a language?
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Help us settle a programmatic civil war here at my job... The first camp says "binary is NOT any kind of language". The second camp says "binary IS a kind of language". Neither camp is implying that there are teams of binary programmers out there or anything, there's just a debate on what constitutes a "language". What say you? Is binary a language? Thanks!
No, it's not a language, it's a number system. One can certainly express language using a number system, but only when combining it with an encoding/decoding scheme, like ASCII. Without some sort of context, a string of numbers is just a string of numbers. 0100 0001 doesn't mean "A" unless something says it does. And even then you only have an alphabet, not a language. So binary + ASCII + English is a language, but binary isn't.
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Help us settle a programmatic civil war here at my job... The first camp says "binary is NOT any kind of language". The second camp says "binary IS a kind of language". Neither camp is implying that there are teams of binary programmers out there or anything, there's just a debate on what constitutes a "language". What say you? Is binary a language? Thanks!
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No, it's not a language, it's a number system. One can certainly express language using a number system, but only when combining it with an encoding/decoding scheme, like ASCII. Without some sort of context, a string of numbers is just a string of numbers. 0100 0001 doesn't mean "A" unless something says it does. And even then you only have an alphabet, not a language. So binary + ASCII + English is a language, but binary isn't.
I think the confusion is less about "what is a language?" and more about "what is binary?" I think some people here are interchanging "binary" with "machine language". Like, "I've programmed computers in binary." I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. It would be like me saying, "I just wrote this post in Roman/Latin." I think binary is technically the base-2 number system, but may also be used to refer to any collection of 1's and 0's. Binary is not machine language, even though machine language is written in binary. Roman is not English, even though English is written with Roman characters.
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Help us settle a programmatic civil war here at my job... The first camp says "binary is NOT any kind of language". The second camp says "binary IS a kind of language". Neither camp is implying that there are teams of binary programmers out there or anything, there's just a debate on what constitutes a "language". What say you? Is binary a language? Thanks!
Binary is an alphabet. ...it's also a base 2 number system. ...AND a language. The only confusing part is one of terminology. There is no exact analogy for these concepts existing in the English language, as the English language is broken down into several levels of a hierarchy that "binary" is not subject to. In English, "A" and "B" are letters. "A", "B", "C", "D" and the other 22 letters collectively form an "alphabet". Letters form words. Words become language. There are many layers to the hierarchy of 'language', but 'binary' is still 'binary' at every level of this hierarchy. There are no other terms for the different uses at each level. For example, with binary, "10" is the complete alphabet. "10" is also a word that communicates meaning. And since "binary" is both the singular and plural form of the word, "10110101001010110000101001001010100100101010010" is language as well, as the poster demonstrated above with his entire paragraph of 'binary'. Taking the analogy even further, there are actually different 'dialects' of this language, like big-endian and little-endian.
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That's like saying the alphabet is a language. Binary can provide the building blocks of a language, but I do not see how it can be a language itself.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
I agree! I was trying to find a way to explain what was on my mind and you got it right on!
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010000100110010100100000011100110111010101110010011001 010010000001110100011011110010000001100100011100100110 100101101110011010110010000001111001011011110111010101 110010001000000100111101110110011000010110110001110100 01101001011011100110010100101110
Be sure to drink your Ovaltine
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See the uncyclopedia article on this matter: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Binary[^]
I can't believe I was dumb-nerd enough to write a decoder...
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Help us settle a programmatic civil war here at my job... The first camp says "binary is NOT any kind of language". The second camp says "binary IS a kind of language". Neither camp is implying that there are teams of binary programmers out there or anything, there's just a debate on what constitutes a "language". What say you? Is binary a language? Thanks!
If binary is a language, so is the decimal system. To my knowledge, binary strings just represent numbers. There's no grammar or structure involved. Only numerical values. I wouldn't call the decimal/binary/hexadecimal/.../ system a language. And I also wouldn't call it an alphabet either. I'ld call it what it is: a numerical system... base 2.
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Binary is an alphabet. ...it's also a base 2 number system. ...AND a language. The only confusing part is one of terminology. There is no exact analogy for these concepts existing in the English language, as the English language is broken down into several levels of a hierarchy that "binary" is not subject to. In English, "A" and "B" are letters. "A", "B", "C", "D" and the other 22 letters collectively form an "alphabet". Letters form words. Words become language. There are many layers to the hierarchy of 'language', but 'binary' is still 'binary' at every level of this hierarchy. There are no other terms for the different uses at each level. For example, with binary, "10" is the complete alphabet. "10" is also a word that communicates meaning. And since "binary" is both the singular and plural form of the word, "10110101001010110000101001001010100100101010010" is language as well, as the poster demonstrated above with his entire paragraph of 'binary'. Taking the analogy even further, there are actually different 'dialects' of this language, like big-endian and little-endian.
ohreallyus wrote:
Letters form words. Words become language.
No. Words are components that are combined to provide communication in a language. Letters are used to give a representation of words. Without words (whether spoken / written / signed or otherwise communicated), languages would not exist; but, conversely, words would not exist without languages. There is a symbiosis - words and languages co-exist. Binary sequences can be used as representations of information. They are not the information, but the ordering of the components in the sequence can be used to convey information. It is not necessary for there to be any recipient who understands the representation (e.g. the script of the Indus Valley Civilisation has not been decoded but is a representation of a language).
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Help us settle a programmatic civil war here at my job... The first camp says "binary is NOT any kind of language". The second camp says "binary IS a kind of language". Neither camp is implying that there are teams of binary programmers out there or anything, there's just a debate on what constitutes a "language". What say you? Is binary a language? Thanks!
actually binary is the new way of designing life...we computer science engineers have redesigned the whole world using binary that is just 1 and 0...so cheers to all and cheers to this way of life :)
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Help us settle a programmatic civil war here at my job... The first camp says "binary is NOT any kind of language". The second camp says "binary IS a kind of language". Neither camp is implying that there are teams of binary programmers out there or anything, there's just a debate on what constitutes a "language". What say you? Is binary a language? Thanks!
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That's like saying the alphabet is a language. Binary can provide the building blocks of a language, but I do not see how it can be a language itself.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
Yes. The machine's instruction set, OTOH, is a language. Perhaps the argument arises from a convolution of the terms "binary" and "machine code".
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Wrong question.
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Luc Pattyn wrote:
everything is a language
When I fart very carefully, I can almost pick out de-stinked words.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997That's a gas.
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I can't believe I was dumb-nerd enough to write a decoder...
No doubt... Google is your friend and you know that 10,000 other people have already written one. Work smarter not harder!
ragnaroknrol: Yes, but comparing a rabid wolverine gnawing on your face while stabbing you with a fountain pen to Vista is likely to make the wolverine look good, so it isn't exactly that big of a compliment.
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No doubt... Google is your friend and you know that 10,000 other people have already written one. Work smarter not harder!
ragnaroknrol: Yes, but comparing a rabid wolverine gnawing on your face while stabbing you with a fountain pen to Vista is likely to make the wolverine look good, so it isn't exactly that big of a compliment.
firegryphon wrote:
10,000 other people have already written one
Never questioned that, just never crossed any. Specially a web-based, which I don't need to install or anything and it's ASCII decoder. Luckly it was ASCII text encoding, or else it wouldn't be so easy to figure the message out.
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firegryphon wrote:
10,000 other people have already written one
Never questioned that, just never crossed any. Specially a web-based, which I don't need to install or anything and it's ASCII decoder. Luckly it was ASCII text encoding, or else it wouldn't be so easy to figure the message out.
No doubt. You are a far more diligent man than I. Go to this website though. http://www.roubaixinteractive.com/PlayGround/Binary\_Conversion/Binary\_To\_Text.asp
ragnaroknrol: Yes, but comparing a rabid wolverine gnawing on your face while stabbing you with a fountain pen to Vista is likely to make the wolverine look good, so it isn't exactly that big of a compliment.
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No doubt. You are a far more diligent man than I. Go to this website though. http://www.roubaixinteractive.com/PlayGround/Binary\_Conversion/Binary\_To\_Text.asp
ragnaroknrol: Yes, but comparing a rabid wolverine gnawing on your face while stabbing you with a fountain pen to Vista is likely to make the wolverine look good, so it isn't exactly that big of a compliment.
Oh man, where is the creativity these days....
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Help us settle a programmatic civil war here at my job... The first camp says "binary is NOT any kind of language". The second camp says "binary IS a kind of language". Neither camp is implying that there are teams of binary programmers out there or anything, there's just a debate on what constitutes a "language". What say you? Is binary a language? Thanks!
I would argue that Binary Code is a formal language. Based on wiki's language disambiguation[^], there is a distinction between human, natural, and artificial languages. A formal language, i.e. an artificial language - a language created for a specific purpose, is a concept used in mathematics and computer science. Thus[^], a formal language L over an alphabet Σ is a subset of Σ*, that is, a set of words over that alphabet. In computer science and mathematics, which do not usually deal with natural languages, the adjective "formal" is often omitted as redundant. While formal language theory usually concerns itself with formal languages that are described by some syntactical rules, the actual definition of the concept "formal language" is only as above: a (possibly infinite) set of finite-length strings, no more nor less. In practice, there are many languages that can be described by rules, such as regular languages or context-free languages. The notion of a formal grammar may be closer to the intuitive concept of a "language," one described by syntactic rules. By an abuse of the definition, a particular formal language is often thought of as being equipped with a formal grammar that describes it. If by binary[^] we understand binary code[^], a way of representing text or computer processor instructions by the use of the binary number system's two-binary digits 0 and 1, then we have a formal language. For another example, Braille is a type of binary code that is widely used by blind people to read and write. This system consist of 6 dot positions, three in each column. Each dot has two states, raised or not raised. Braille is a language, right? : )
I would imagine if you could understand Morse Code, a tap dancer would drive you crazy. -- Mitch Hedberg (American Comedian, 1968-2005)
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Oh man, where is the creativity these days....
Obviously not with ovaltine as evidenced by the special note.
ragnaroknrol: Yes, but comparing a rabid wolverine gnawing on your face while stabbing you with a fountain pen to Vista is likely to make the wolverine look good, so it isn't exactly that big of a compliment.