Re: Scripting vs. Programming language vs. 4GL?

tellab5!odgate!dbk@uunet.UU.NET (Dan Keith) writes:
|> I'm embroiled in a debate with my colleagues over the difference between
|> the term "programming language" and the term "scripting language".


I think at least in the Unix world the most-used criterion is
whether the language is being compiled or not:


      Everything that is interpreted may be called a 'script'.


I would say that every language which is (almost?) ALWAYS interpreted
instead of compiled can be called a scripting language.


The two terms are not orthogonal, though:
For instance sed and perl are both scripting languages in the above
sense, but I would not speak of sed as a programming language.
Perl, on the other hand, clearly is one.


And the borderlines are also not sharp:
Think of Common Lisp which nobody would call a scripting languages,
although it is at most partially compiled.


    Lutz


--
Lutz Prechelt (email: prechelt@ira.uka.de)
Institut fuer Programmstrukturen und Datenorganisation
Universitaet Karlsruhe; 76128 Karlsruhe; Germany
(Voice: ++49/721/608-4068, FAX: ++49/721/694092)


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