[zem]

if we trim a regex down to literal character matches is it still a regex?

[imtringued]

So any text file is a programming language?

[andrewaylett]

I would say that a "language" is a necessary component of a "programming language".

An empty file was an IOCCC winner: https://www.ioccc.org/1994/smr/ but you need to interpret that empty file as C source in order to reasonably claim to have programmed the computer.

My reasoning comes more from the other direction: someone who writes HTML is programming therefore HTML is a programming language.