A little while ago I wrote a post about my concepts of declarative vs. imperative programming. I ended that article by saying, “I can’t wait to see what I’ll learn next.” Well, I’ve found another definition which has been very helpful to me lately. Also, I’m a little worried that it might actually be the opposite of my previous example. I guess that’s learning?
Declarative language describes what you want to happen, without necessarily explaining every step of the process to get there. “I want butternut squash soup.”
Imperative language describes every step toward making something happen. “I want a butternut squash that’s been cut in two, seeds removed, roasted, peeled, and blended with broth and spices.”
Of course, there’s quite a spectrum implied by those two words. How specific can we get in imperative language? “I want a butternut squash” already makes certain assumptions. How about, “I want an orange, long, vine grown winter squash”? This could go on all day. It really depends on the domain or the context in which your language will be used.
So back to programming. Most programming languages (at least the ones I’m familiar with) are decently imperative. With such a tool, you can use statements and conditions to tell the computer exactly what you want to happen and when.
On the other hand we have artifacts like HTML, the building-block of the World Wide Web. I know plenty of people who consider writing HTML to be using a programing language, and yet it actually falls much more on the declarative side of the spectrum. With HTML you describe what you want to happen to some content and each browser that reads that HTML must figure out how to do what you’ve asked. For example it may need to switch font weights if you’ve used a strong tag to wrap some text.
That said, declarative language relies on imperative language. Every declarative tool, like HTML, has been generated by humans wanting to simplify their work. They got tired of doing something repetitive and so they wrote a tool to convert it from a simpler form. Asking for soup is not very useful if no one in the room knows how to cook.
One more thought: writing HTML is declarative compared to, say, using JavaScript to edit the DOM. Yet there are other layers, like Markdown, which are in some ways even more declarative than HTML. It’s only in comparison that we can say that one thing is declarative and another is imperative, so always be on the lookout for other perspectives. And hey, that goes for the real world too.
Payton.Codes 