Pet Peeve: Compilers vs. Languages

This is REALLY a pet peeve of mine...and I just felt like writing a post about it.

I hate it when people consider a compiler a language, or a certain compiler completely seperate from the language....for example,

Several people say, "what language are you learning?"
The reply is, "I am learning the language VB"

VB (Visual BASIC) is not a language...it is a compiler, just like Borland, MSVC, etc....it is a compiler of the language BASIC, just like Power BASIC, QBASIC, FirstBasic, etc....they are all BASIC compilers, none of them are their own language...

That is the one that I hate most of all, but there are a couple other small ones, for example, Delphi.

Delphi is a Pascal compiler...it is not a language....just so people know...

Okay...i feel like i have vented steam....

Thank you, DavidP. My sentiments exactly... Considering making this a sticky on all the boards. :) j/k, Kermi3 would kill me. ;)

Also when the people mistake the IDE for the compiler.
That really bugs me. Especially with Bloodshed (it's not a compiler).

Especially when people assume I use allegro... Grr... [oh wait, what were we talking about?... oops...]

Note that most compilers are not fully compliable to the standards. This counts for compilers for lot of languages. So when people are talking about VC++, then they can come up with VC++ specific additions to the C++ language. Therefore I see VC++ as a dialect of C++. Just like Turbo C is not compliable to the ANSI C standard, I see Turbo C as a dialect of C.

actually visual basic is a language "kinda". like with a command button you add it then you edit it. You dont write all the code to display it like its location of the form you just drag. Also vb does all the api functions for windows form. Im not sayin it a language but its more involved compiler.

does bloodshed use MingGW or GCC?

The Windows version uses MingGW. Not sure about the Nix version (or if there even is a Nix version).

>>> Note that most compilers are not fully compliable to the standards.

Ain't that the truth.

mingw is a windows implementation of gcc. gcc was designed to be a neccesary part of GNU, a free reimplementation of Unix.