Looking for a scripting language

[deckerben]

Greetings.

I am just asking for someone's opinion. I want to pick a scripting language.

I have decided that the black-and-white approach of 'just know C and Java'
may not be sufficient. I ahve several windows scripts (batch files) that I
would like to re-write in the language of a single interpreter.
As part of my experimentation, I ported the Python source (2.5 and 2.0.1) to
DOS using DJGPP.

First, I need to re-write some PC batchfiles that do just about everything
(string manipulation, computation, sub-process calling, system
variable-setting, etc.) in the single scripting language of just one
interpreter. That is, I want to illiminate the need to call an outside
executable to handle a certian task as much as possible (to increase speed).
But the interpreter needs to be as flexible as a shell prompt in its ability
to handle command-line arguments, file I/O, and extern-executable calls.

BTW: Can Python temporarily 'shell' to an external executable?

I am currently considering: PERL, JAVASCRIPT, PYTHON and LISP.

Which would work the best?

Which one of these languages has the greatest demand for programmers at the
moment?

Is there another language I should consider?

Ben