Dark Basic / Professional being a Language is really more up to interpretation on what makes a language.
Do you consider 3D GameMaker A6 a Programming Language, or a Scripter with a 3D Engine?
Dark Basic / Professional, really does tred a thin line in this respect because it is based entirely upon a 3D Engine which you cannot turn off.
(Before someone points out Mx7's NoDx, a) that's an intercepter, b) it isn't an official release)
So this means no matter what your doing you *MUST* use thier engine. Infact everything to do with the language is actually a function within this Engine, and not part of the core language.
If you look within the Core.dll, you will notice that everything down to Remarks, Addition and such are actually functions within that DLL.
Really it is upto you how you take that though, personally I would say that make Dark Basic Professional a compiled front-end linker to an engine. I.E. a Basic Syntax Scripter + Engine.
If the engine actually had all of it's core functionality as part of the compiler, then that would mean it would be a thin line.
Dark Basic is, because it is an Interpreted Language; Therefore that is how you expect the language to be, statment programmed then parsered via the Interpreter.
Dark Basic Professional however has been aired as a Compiled Language, which means it should be outputting pure binary then using the engine. Shouldn't be any code interpretation going on.