Is CSS a scripting language?

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Table of Contents

CSS is a language used to describe the webpage presentation. These presentations include fonts, colors, and layout. CSS allows a developer to get used to presentations with different devices. These include both small and large screen devices.

A scripting language is defined as a programming language used by a runtime system that makes task execution automatic. These tasks would have been performed manually by human beings. During the runtime, scripting languages are usually not compiled but rather interpreted.

Back to the point of discussion, regardless of what your take may be upon going through the above descriptions, the fact still remains, CSS is not a scripting language, neither is it a programming language.  CSS is a style sheet language, in short, a style language. It is majorly used to expand the presentations of the structure of a document.

With that out of the way, what kind of language is CSS then. That is our next discussion; stay close.

Is CSS a scripting language
Is CSS a scripting language

What kind of language is CSS?

In the first question, you asked whether CSS is a scripting language. CSS is not a scripting language; it is a style sheet language. The other name for this can be a style language. In simple explanations, CSS is a style language that is used mostly to showcase the presentation information of structured documents. 

With that, an assumption is made that you know what a style or a style sheet language is! To avoid doubt, a style sheet language is a computer language that shows the presentations of a well-defined or structured document. Structured documents have one very attractive feature, that is, their ability to recycle documents and prepare them ready to be re-used in many topics. They can be presented in many ways. Remember, they can support different style sheets; hence they can be attached to the main structure in order to condense it into another different presentation.

CSS is an abbreviation for `Cascading Style Sheet.` The name cascading is derived from its only specific priority scheme to know or determine the type of style rule that applies in the case where more than a single rule gets compatible with a given element.

CSS is used to bring styles into a document. It changes the document color and fonts. For instance, in case you want to change the color of a paragraph, you’ll need to perform it by CSS. It will give it a new look. CSS is the most used style sheet language; it is used to change the document layout in HTML, SVG, XHTML, and many other markup languages.

In order to present content in a structured document, there are a set of stylistic guidelines that give description to this; for instance, you MUST use colors and fonts, not forgetting layouts. All these are called stylistic. When many stylistic rules are brought together, they build what is called a style sheet.

Most editors and typographers use a style sheet to ensure a consistent overflow of presentations, including punctuation and spelling. CSS can as well be used in visual presentations instead of punctuation and spelling. Having seen that, what do you think CSS is?

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What is CSS?

Ever heard of CSS or even thought about what it entails. What do you think of CSS? CSS is an abbreviation that stands for Cascading Style Sheet.` The name cascading is derived from its only specific priority scheme to know or determine the type of style rule that applies in the case where more than a single rule gets compatible with a given element.

It is a style sheet since the emphasis is on the document style. It specifies the style in your document’s page layout. These styles include fonts and colors. Generally, it is the work of CSS to determine the type of layout or presentation a document should have. 

With that in mind, you should now be in a good position to define what CSS is in your own words. Many developers have their own definitions of what CSS is, don’t focus on the many definitions; it is simple.

CSS is a style language that is used to describe the webpage presentation. The presentations involve different layouts like colors and fonts. It allows developers to get used to presentations with different devices, including large and small screen devices and printers as well.

Let’s focus on CSS being a style sheet language that can give a description of the document’s format that is in a Markup language. It can help you bring in more looks to your documents. In case you incorporate changes in CSS code, you get into a position of easily changing the website look. This is a key feature of CSS that makes it attract large community attention.

Why do you need to use CSS? If you want to define the structure or style in your website, including design, layout, and difference in display for diverse devices, run for CSS. It will help you achieve what you want. Remember, CSS saves a huge task. Task definitions are usually saved in the external CSS files.

CSS condenses the workload by taking charge of the type of display multiple web pages display. It is also worth it that CSS has huge support from the community. It is used with HTML to convert the web page styles and user interfaces as well. It is compatible with other types of XML documents, such as plain XML< SVG and XUL.

Is CSS a language or framework?

This is a two-way question. First, you need to know whether CSS is a language or not, after which, you’ll have to know whether it is a framework. You must have an idea about this or perhaps something to say about CSS being a language or a framework. What do you think?

Many questions have been asked about this, and many answers have as well emerged from people with diverse opinions of what CSS is! Remember earlier on; you did learn that CSS is neither a scripting language nor a programming language. It is a style sheet language or a style language.

What do you understand by a style language? 

A style language or a style sheet language is used mostly to present the document layout in a manner that pleases the developer. It is used to bring in styles into the document. These styles include colors and fonts.

There a lot of CSS frameworks that most developers use to build a responsive website. The CSS framework issues a basic structure to developers. These structures include web typography, buttons, icons, form elements, etc. 

This is what has given developers an easy time in coming up with user-friendly Webpages.  The CSS framework creates a basic startup or foundation for developers; hence they won’t start everything from the beginning or scratch. In case you would have loved to use the CSS framework in building your website, there are some best frameworks that you should prefer using. Just to mention a few:

There is Bootstrap which is commonly used by developers. It exists in different versions, but so far, the current version is version 4, which was made public in 2018.

The second CSS framework is the foundation. It is seen as the most responsive framework in the world. This is not the end of these versions; there are many more versions like Pure, Bulma, Senantic UI, UI kit, and many more.

Is CSS a coding language?

Ever wondered about CSS being a coding language? Then you are in the right place. Before you get to know the answer to this, you should first know what coding means and what it entails when you hear about a coding language. 

Coding or programming is similar to finding a puzzle solution. Think of any human language; for this case, let’s take French. Just as you use your language to combat or change thoughts or ideas it is the same thing involved in programming, not only for programming being computer-based. A programming language can now be defined as the way of communicating with computer software.

CSS is a non-coding language. It is a page structure that is used to change the document layout. What exactly does CSS stand for? It is an abbreviation for `Cascading Style Sheet.` 

`Style Sheet` refers to the whole document. In CSS, the major emphasis is on style. This is to say that the key function of CSS is to specify the style in your document page layout. It changes the type of presentation to the one that you desire. You can use CSS to change the paragraph colors and fonts. This is also applicable to the design or type of page layout.

Is that so? Now, based on what CSS is and what you can say about a coding language, what can be your take. Is CSS a coding language or not? 

What is a scripting language?

A scripting language or a script is a programming language that can be manipulated. Examples of scripting languages include JavaScript, Ruby, and Python. In other words, a scripting language can be defined as a combination of instructions that can be executed without compiling. 

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Remember, all scripting languages are programming languages, but not all programming languages can be scripting languages. All scripting languages like Python and Ruby use a set of programs known as interpreters to manipulate commands. They are interpreted directly from source code; this means that they don’t need a compilation process.

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On the other hand, other programming languages may require a compiler to manipulate commands to the machine codes before execution. Having said that, it is of great importance to know the difference between compiled languages and interpreted ones. 

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The difference may be simple or complicated, depending on your level of understanding. An interpreted programming language is designed to perform source codes directly. This is to say that it doesn’t require to be compiled into the machine language rules. The interpreter will perform the task by manipulating the statement into a subroutine. After this, it will have to transform them into another machine language.

If you want to understand better how the compiler operates, try to think of some operating systems. A better example, in this case, is the Windows program; it is compiled to operate on the Windows platform.

Do you have any clue about types of scripting languages? They are just two. That is the server-side scripting and the client-side scripting. The difference is not so big! It’s only that the server-side scripting language runs on the server, or in other words, it requires a server for processing.

It runs on a web server in that when a client feeds in a request, the server responds automatically by sending the response. The client-side scripting language operates on the side of the client on the type of web browser the client is using. The client-side scripting language has one advantage, which is its ability to condense demand on the server. This is what allows web pages to load much faster. Contrary to this is the server-side script, which also has one advantage, that is it’s not visible to the public, unlike on the client’s side. 

A scripting language can be termed a domain-focused language in a given ecosystem. When you want to script an application, it can be called an extension language. What did you notice? Does the name change according to the task underway? 

All scripting languages are used to intervene between different programs so that they can come up with desirable data. A good example that can be used to verify this is the Bash language which is a shell scripting language. If you go deeper into it, you’ll find that languages such as Perl and Python existed due to the desire to accomplish tasks in UNIX. They wanted to accomplish the task without writing on C#.

In case you are about to make a decision on which side to go, it is good to remember that, client’s side scripting language is more user-friendly compared to the server-side.

Difference between markup language and scripting language

This is what many developers cannot explain in detail. They do confuse the functions of markup languages with a scripting language. Regardless of this, you should have your take on this to void confusion.  

To begin with, markup languages are computer languages that cannot be executed in any way. They also cannot be used to execute any action. However, they are mostly used to design data, identify and present data as required.

There are many examples of Markup languages with their functions. In this article, you are only going to see a few. To begin with, we have HTML>< which is mainly used to design the content of a website. There is also XHTML, whose functionality is similar to HTML, not only for some slight differences. The third one is XML. XML has a wide number of functions; they include structuring data in a webpage. In some cases, it is used to define the UI addresses and structure since it is used to develop android apps.

The above examples are completely different from programming languages and all scripting languages as well. Remember, the semantic issued is a presentational language that does not require any logic.

Up to that point, you should not forget some key factors about these two languages. Remember, all scripting languages can be used as programming languages, while not all programming languages are scripting languages.  A better example, in this case, is the C#. It can never be called a scripting language; it is all about being a programming language. On the other hand, JavaScript can be used as a scripting language and programming language. With that well taken, let’s get back to the main topic. 

What do you think of scripting languages? What is its definition or anything of that kind? Don’t worry; you are in the right place. To be clearer, a scripting language is a programming language. The difference comes in since it doesn’t require compilation like other programming languages. The general key function of scripting languages is that they are used to control or guide other programs. This brings you to one of its features, that is, it contains instructions. 

It is the role of scripting languages to connect or combine two different languages into one. Remember, it cannot work alone; it also requires other languages to bind itself to so that it works pro efficiently. The interpretation of scripting languages involves scanning the codes one by one. This is to say that they aren’t compiled. 

Another important function of scripting languages that is worth noting is that they can be used to bring together running components with scripts operating inside another program. This is to say that they are dependent on one another; one requires the other to operate efficiently.

Conclusion

What a journey! Did you find it interesting or not. In this concluding section, there are some important features and functions that you should always have at your fingertips as a developer or a programmer. First, what CSS stands for? Be reminded that CSS is an abbreviation for a cascading style sheet language. The name cascading is derived from its only specific priority scheme to know or determine the type of style rule that applies in the case where more than a single rule is compatible with a single element.

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Remember, CSS is a language used to describe the webpage presentation and structure. These presentations include fonts, colors, and layout. CSS allows a developer to get used to presentations with different devices. As a developer, always have it in mind that CSS can operate independently; that is to say, its operation is not dependent on HTML. In addition to this, it can be used with any type of XML-based Markup language since it is compatible and user-friendly.

Questions about CSS being a framework or anything about a framework in CSS are now clearer. But just to remind you of a few examples of CSS frameworks.

Remember earlier on; you did learn that CSS is neither a scripting language nor a programming language. It is a style sheet language or a style language.

What do you understand by a style language? 

A style language or a style sheet language is used mostly to present the document layout in a manner that pleases the developer. It is used to bring in styles into the document. These styles include colors and fonts.

There a lot of CSS frameworks that most developers use to build a responsive website. CSS framework issue a basic structure to developers. 

Have it in mind that a scripting language or a script is a programming language that can be manipulated. Know some examples of scripting languages like JavaScript, Ruby, and Python. Do you have any intentions of learning these languages?

In other words, a scripting language can be defined as a combination of instructions that can be executed without compiling. 

Remember, all scripting languages are programming languages, but not all programming languages can be scripting languages. This article should add value to you as a developer.

Luis Gillman
Luis Gillman

Hi, I Am Luis Gillman CA (SA), ACMA
I am a Chartered Accountant (SA) and CIMA (SA) and author of Due Diligence: A strategic and Financial Approach.

The book was published by Lexis Nexis on 2001. In 2010, I wrote the second edition. Much of this website is derived from these two books.

In addition I have published an article entitled the Link Between Due Diligence and Valautions.

Disclaimer: Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information published on this website is accurate, the author and owners of this website take no responsibility  for any loss or damage suffered as a result of relience upon the information contained therein.  Furthermore the bulk of the information is derived from information in 2018 and use therefore is at your on risk. In addition you should consult professional advice if required.