Is a Website a Software?

Hello. I heard this phase some days ago : "A website is a Software". I have been arguing with my mind, but I dont think this is true, mainly because website is a DOCUMENT, not an executable file. In wikipedia.com
it doesnt say alot about this(In Fact doesnt say at all about Websites, just this : Websites are "DOCUMENTS").

I want to hear your opinion of what you think?

 

A document is SW written on varying HW. What's been said and done or said actively is always SW while what's being physically used to say it is always HW.

A blank book is hardware. What's written in the book is software.

 

In the days of the "old" web, you may have been correct. But today's websites are most definitely not just documents.

Take this forum for example. There is an extensive backened running on servers, in addition to the JavaScript and CSS running client-side, enabling us to interact with the page and underlying application.

And JavaScript isn't just for tiny, simple things. As an example of such, go over to heroforge.com...that is most definitely not just "a document".

 

I know that..... How about a website that is not using JS? We have to consider them too I think

 

Also, I recently tossed my 8 year old Mac Mini because no web browser I could use on it was fast enough to browse with all the javascript and other software doing things in the web page. Even modern browsers on modern computers struggle with it. Microsoft knows this and the result was Edge but it pages are still too busy and too slow. Focusing too much on extracting what they can monetarily from the reader and not enough on the values or lack of values of what they are offering up to read to the web surfer.

 

I can't think of any websites, that aren't holdovers of pre Web 2.0, that don't use some form of interactivity. Even a site that doesn't use JS is probably at least using CSS (and oh the things you can do with CSS3).

The days of treating a website as just a document are long gone.

Edit: and let's not forget things such as HTML5 Audio and Video tags. Or the shadow DOM, or custom web components.

 

no.

 

You could liken a website to a software program and the browser to a virtual machine.

 

In general. But a lot of small businesses still hire "web guys" to make them a static website with no interactivity at all, for purposes of credibility. That way they don't have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for it.

 

Thank you, but what I mean is IN GENERAL, Just a Website like Facebook for example.... Is it a software?

 

no its a script. There is no executable

 

This is my opinion too, but i see people here have different opinions. So its subjective or what?

 

Most DEFINITELY yes. Software is simply program instructions that make hardware USEFUL. The term "software" is INCREDIBLY broad, to my knowledge there is no distinction made between "scripts" versus "executables"... after all, a "script" is a set of instructions that are interpreted by... an executable...

My entire job is wrapped around building web APPLICATIONS (.NET in my case) because html portals make sharing access to databases very easy.

CAN a website be ONLY a DOCUMENT? Yes. If you are serving up static pages of web based text/images that have zero interactivity then no... it's not really "software"... but as soon as you start breaking that boundary and start interacting with that information in a meaningful way you've blown right into the software territory quite quickly. Facebook is most definitely a software project and I'm sure the thousands of man hours that have went into building it would be pretty dissatisfied by someone calling it "documents only" LOL.

 

I know IF WE USE JS then its going to be a software for sure.... Wikipedia says so. But what with only HTML/CSS language? I think It shouldnt be different from website to website(What I mean is : Facebook(Has JS) its a software and another html document that is A WEBSITE too its not a software). I think this is really confusing

 

"I think It shouldnt be different from website to website"
That's where your logic is flawed... it is ABSOLUTELY different from website to website. In fact, stop focusing on web "site" it can be different from web PAGE to PAGE.

HTML/CSS are "presentation languages"... they exist to format and beautify the information. The HTML documents themselves are not "software" but the HTML browser, and the webserver that is serving that document to your browser most definitely IS software. Again, keep in mind the term software is very broad... it's counter/negative isn't "documents" the counter to it is "hardware". So everything built around a web document IS software, and the moment the web document itself becomes script based, ... does something MORE than simply present static information, then it TOO is software.

 

Keep in mind that HTML Document makes Hardware do something also.... It makes Hardware(Graphic Card) To Display What every tag says

 

Absolutely! If the world has to be "black and white" and web documents can be either software or not software, definitely err on the side of software.

 

The software is the browser. The website is content for such software.

 

of course a web dev is going to say its software

Just because it falls under the same category as real development, doesnt mean it is..

 

Game development must not be real development either. After all Unity uses a scripting language.

 

Why does this thread exist? It nothing to do with Unity.

The argument is just semantics. It basically comes down to "How do you define software?"

Since almost the entire feild if computer science is arbitrary, it doesn't matter. Answers of "yes", "no", "sometimes" and "green" are all valid.

 

Yes, but the website is Software or Not, ?

 

Not every thread in Unity has to do with Unity, Go check it if you are not sure... We asked for your opinion, If you dont have any, its better not to write at all.

 

Our friendly neighborhood moderators are too busy within the thread welcoming the new community manager.

 

I didnt get that lol

 

A website is just data which requires hardware and software for you to be able to access the data.

 

Fine then