What is the difference between learning HTML and learning a programming language? [closed]

Question

I learned HTML and CSS about 8 months ago, and recently, about 2 months ago I started learning Python and Ruby. I find it much harder/time consuming to understand and be able to put Python and Ruby into practice than it was HTML or CSS.

How is learning/understanding HTML and CSS, and being able to use them different from learning a programming language like Python or Ruby, and being able to put them in practice.

Answer 1

HTML is merely markup. It's more about data and layout in the particular space of browsers and the web. There's not much logic involved. There's nothing like looping or conditional constructs. It helps to know something about HTTP and how browser clients and servers communicate, but that's it.

Python, Ruby, and every other general purpose language out there include those extra complications that involve logic. They span more problem spaces than HTML, so they have to be more flexible and powerful.

Answer 2

HTML and CSS are presentation "languages" - they describe the contents of a document and how it should be presented.

Programming languages like Python, C#, C, C++, Delphi, BASIC, Clojure, etc are different in that they contain logic. You can't do things like branching and iteration in HTML.