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  3. Is "binary" a language?

Is "binary" a language?

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  • E Emrak123

    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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    Wayne Gaylard
    wrote on last edited by
    #7

    A language is a system of symbols and rules used for communicating. Therefore you could imply that binary is a language, in that it has symbols (albeit only 2), and it has rules for combining these symbols into a structure that can be interpreted by another person without the originator being present.

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    • R Rama Krishna Vavilala

      1

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      Mladen Jankovic
      wrote on last edited by
      #8

      0101 :thumbsup:

      [Genetic Algorithm Library]

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      • L Lost User

        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.

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        peterchen
        wrote on last edited by
        #9

        Exactly, it's an alphabet.

        FILETIME to time_t
        | FoldWithUs! | sighist | WhoIncludes - Analyzing C++ include file hierarchy

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        • E Emrak123

          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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          David1987
          wrote on last edited by
          #10

          Well yes I'd say it is[^], so there actually are teams of binary programmers out there :) Ok not many and it's a theoretical busyness.. And incidentally, it does have a grammar: any non-empty string containing only the characters 0 or 1.

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          • E Emrak123

            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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            Michael Schubert
            wrote on last edited by
            #11

            Tell your boss to fire the second camp.

            Go and never darken my towels again - Groucho Marx

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            • E Emrak123

              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!

              R Offline
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              R Giskard Reventlov
              wrote on last edited by
              #12

              No, at least not in the commonly held notion of what a language is. It could be construed to be an alphabet, of sorts, by which you can build meaning by combining the characters to produce 'words' that convey a meaning that is more than the sum of the parts. Another test might be that language is a spoken medium and it would be pretty difficult to speak binary in that you could voice a string of zeroes and ones with appropriate breaks or stresses whereas with a 'normal' language the characters combine to create meaning that can be articulated vocally in a meaningful way with more natural or learnt breaks and stresses. I suppose if you could find someone else that spoke binary you would have a language but it would, to our ears, sound very odd and take a long time to say almost nothing. :-)

              "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

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              • E Emrak123

                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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                J Offline
                jeron1
                wrote on last edited by
                #13

                101010

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                • E Emrak123

                  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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                  TheGreatAndPowerfulOz
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #14

                  No, binary is no more a language than decimal.

                  If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams
                  You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering” - Wernher von Braun

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                  • E Emrak123

                    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!

                    Mike HankeyM Offline
                    Mike HankeyM Offline
                    Mike Hankey
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #15

                    0100 0010

                    Semper Fi http://www.hq4thmarinescomm.com[^]
                    www.jaxcoder.com[^] WinHeist - Windows Electronic Inventory SysTem

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                    • E Emrak123

                      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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                      Dan Neely
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #16

                      The second camp needs worked over with a cluebat and explained the difference between 'binary' and 'machine language'. If they're clear on that but still think it's a language they probably need pink slips. :doh:

                      3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18

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                      • E Emrak123

                        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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                        Luc Pattyn
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #17

                        you are right, and so are they. try and define language. 1. everything is a language, as it has vocabulary, has or could have syntax (rules about what is allowed and isn't allowed), has or could have semantics (giving meaning to the linguistic building blocks). 2. there are no languages, it is impossible to strictly define a language; all practical languages are ambiguous to some degree; a lot of languages can not even be parsed correctly all the time. if you find time to discuss such things at work, it tells me there are too many of you at your job... now go back to work and write some more assembly instructions. :) PS: is DNA a language?

                        Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum

                        Please use <PRE> tags for code snippets, they preserve indentation, improve readability, and make me actually look at the code.

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                        • E Emrak123

                          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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                          MecAlex
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #18

                          Definitely not a language. It is a type of data. Type of encoding data with electrical impulse

                          We live in a Newtonian world of Einsteinian physics ruled by Frankenstein logic

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                          • L Luc Pattyn

                            you are right, and so are they. try and define language. 1. everything is a language, as it has vocabulary, has or could have syntax (rules about what is allowed and isn't allowed), has or could have semantics (giving meaning to the linguistic building blocks). 2. there are no languages, it is impossible to strictly define a language; all practical languages are ambiguous to some degree; a lot of languages can not even be parsed correctly all the time. if you find time to discuss such things at work, it tells me there are too many of you at your job... now go back to work and write some more assembly instructions. :) PS: is DNA a language?

                            Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum

                            Please use <PRE> tags for code snippets, they preserve indentation, improve readability, and make me actually look at the code.

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                            R Offline
                            realJSOP
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #19

                            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
                            -----
                            You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                            -----
                            "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, 1997

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                            • E Emrak123

                              010000100110010100100000011100110111010101110010011001 010010000001110100011011110010000001100100011100100110 100101101110011010110010000001111001011011110111010101 110010001000000100111101110110011000010110110001110100 01101001011011100110010100101110

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                              Rob Philpott
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #20

                              Not sure who's the biggest nerd - you for writing that or me for working it out.

                              Regards, Rob Philpott.

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                              • R realJSOP

                                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
                                -----
                                You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                                -----
                                "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, 1997

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                                Luc Pattyn
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #21

                                there probably are too many dialects for your language to be really useful. :)

                                Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum

                                Please use <PRE> tags for code snippets, they preserve indentation, improve readability, and make me actually look at the code.

                                1 Reply Last reply
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                                • E Emrak123

                                  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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                                  H Offline
                                  Henry Minute
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #22

                                  Definitely a language. Definitely not a programming language.

                                  Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.

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                                  • E Emrak123

                                    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!

                                    L Offline
                                    L Offline
                                    Lost User
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #23

                                    Is it machine language?

                                    "If climate has not "tipped" in over 4 billion years it's not going to tip now due to mankind." Richard S. Lindzen, Atmospheric Physicist, IPCC "It does not matter who you are, or how smart you are, or what title you have, or how many of you here are, and certainly not how many papers your side has published, if your prediction is wrong then your hypothesis is wrong. Period." Professor Richard Feynman

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                                    • E Emrak123

                                      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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                                      Y Offline
                                      Yusuf
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #24

                                      Emrak123 wrote:

                                      Is binary a language?

                                      You can start the logical reasoning with a very simple question. Define first what is a language. Then check if binary meets the definition of language. While this is the rudimentary answer, some times there are gray areas. What if it meets many of the definitions, but lacks some? We all know that All programming languages' output are eventually converted to binary. So, some arbitrary valid program may have its binary representation as [ONLY for Presentation, not valid code] 10011101000101011110111110101010101010101010101010100 00101010010101010101010101010101010100101010101010101 01010010101000101010111101010001010100010100010100010 10010100010101010001010001010001010001011111110100111 Now, for all practical purpose anyone could hand pick those exact binaries and construct it exactly and feed it to the computer and the result will be exactly the same [There are many details omitted from this process], So would that make binary a language? Absolutely not.

                                      Yusuf May I help you?

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                                      • R Rob Philpott

                                        Not sure who's the biggest nerd - you for writing that or me for working it out.

                                        Regards, Rob Philpott.

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                                        S Offline
                                        Slacker007
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #25

                                        :laugh:

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                                        • R realJSOP

                                          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
                                          -----
                                          You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                                          -----
                                          "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, 1997

                                          S Offline
                                          S Offline
                                          Slacker007
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #26

                                          :laugh: :laugh:

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