Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a styling language that instructs the presentation of web pages. It is related to page structure and stylings, such as colors, fonts, height, width, and other visuals of a page or website—however, some debate over whether CSS counts as a programming language exists. Let's dig into a few details before concluding whether it is a programming language.
The following arguments are in favor of CSS being a programming language:
CSS has its syntax and rules that we need to follow while writing. To specify how items on a web page should be styled, there are multiple types of selectors, properties, and values. Each property-value pair defines a specific style attribute for the selected element, such as color, font size, or background color. Because of its structure and set of rules, CSS resembles programming languages.
In recent years, CSS has become more interactive and dynamic, allowing developers to use it for animations, transitions, and other effects. Dynamic interactivity in CSS is the ability to change styles against user activities or changes in the state of a page, like animations, transitions, and other effects. With time, CSS allowed more dynamic interactivity for the developers. This interactive and dynamic nature led to argue that CSS is more than just a styling language as it can create interactive experiences.
Note: We have used CSS3, HTML5, and ES6 for the example codes.
Here's an example of how CSS can be used for interactivity by creating an animation:
In the code example above, we define a div1 class properties like width, height, border, background-color, etc., and applied animation to the div1 using animation properties like animation-name, animation-duration, and animation-iteration-count. We then used @keyframes to define the states of the animation, describing how the color and position will be changed.
The following arguments are against CSS being a programming language:
CSS can only specify the presentation and styling of web pages, not the functionality or behavior of a website. It cannot perform calculations or operations like loops and conditionals. It lacks many of the features commonly found in programming languages, such as the ability to perform calculations, make decisions, and execute logic.
CSS does not have variables and data types, which are necessary elements of any computer language. Data types give the data a structure, while variables let us store and modify the data. So, CSS cannot be regarded as a programming language without these features.
Here's an example that shows CSS only focuses on the styling of the content:
In the code example above, we define h1 class properties that are related to the appearance of the heading, like font-size, color, text-shadow, and font-family, not its behavior or functionality. While CSS can make elements look more interactive or dynamic, it cannot create interactivity or functionality independently.
In conclusion, although CSS has its own syntax and rules and can provide us with dynamic interactivity, it lacks the building blocks and logic execution that is the main feature of any programming language. So, it's not a programming language in the traditional sense. It is just a style sheet language that mainly focuses on describing the presentation and layout of web pages.
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