Since Apple's "AppStore" went live, everyone thinks they are a professional software developer, and can make a killing out of substandard programs. But actually, the whole HTML as a programming language misconception started long before even that. As part of a game programmers forum, one thing I used to see a lot was "I'm good at HTML so I know what I'm doing", and this was even back in 2004.
Trying to teach them that the L in HTML shouldn't really be there caused us all no end of problems. Yes, it's a language, but in computer land, "language" is synonymous with "programming language", which HTML certainly isn't - an HTML file is an encoded document that is interpreted by a browser, telling said browser how to lay out the webpage.
Mind you, there isn't really a better word, if you change "language" for "code", then still people will think of it as a programming language.
Trying to teach them that the L in HTML shouldn't really be there caused us all no end of problems. Yes, it's a language, but in computer land, "language" is synonymous with "programming language", which HTML certainly isn't - an HTML file is an encoded document that is interpreted by a browser, telling said browser how to lay out the webpage.
Mind you, there isn't really a better word, if you change "language" for "code", then still people will think of it as a programming language.