Python is the best and most popular general purpose scripting language; the universal scripting language

[Ron Stephens]

Jarek Zgoda <jzgoda at gazeta.usun.pl> wrote in message news:<c59u4k$ki9$1 at atlantis.news.tpi.pl>...
> Roy Smith <roy at panix.com> pisze:
> 
> > So, what makes something a "scripting language" as opposed to a 
> > "programming language"?
> 
> I think the opposition of "scripting language" would be "general purpose
> language", not "programming language".
 

Hmm, yes, I think you are all correct. I was a little sloppy in my
choice of the words "programming language" to oppose "scripting
language".

I guess my main point is, Python is the best general purpose scripting
language. Maybe I (and maybe some other folks too?) sort of wanted
Python to out-compete Java and C#: but it isn't happening. Likewise,
as someone said, Perl is definitely more popular still than Python,
BUT, I think Python is more general purpose than Perl. Perl has a heck
of a lot of libraries (CPAN etc) and Perl is great for text
processing; I also can't help but notice that Perl is the most
commonly available and well supported language for CGI. But Perl
doesn't get used for apps like Zope and Chandler, Python does. PHP is,
for that matter, more popular than Python also, but for a limited
problem domain.

For better or worse, Python isn't going to be as entrenched in the
corporate world as Java or .Net any time soon. Neither is Python going
to displace PHP as most popular in PHP's domain, nor will Python even
surpass Perl in absolute terms any time soon.

BUT, Python is the most general purpose of the scripting languages and
this gives Python a very interesting niche for the long term. Having
Jython and now IronPython is a nice long term situation also.

This may be a case of the tortoise beating the hare; but its not going
to be just because the tortoise is the underdog and people's favorite;
Python has something very real going for it, the fact that Python is
the best and most popular general purpose scripting language.

I know some of us take offense at the very term "scripting language"
when its applied to Python, thinking that Python should be compared
directly with Java and its ilk; that was one of my motivations to post
this. I think we should get over it.

There is nothing wrong with being a scripting language. Some people
think scripting languages are the future. And Python is the best
general purpose scripting language. Python, I think, has the chance to
become the universal scripting language, the universal solvent among
programming languages, ubiquitous but certainly not alone.

Sorry for my sloppy use of words in the original post.

And, of course, many feel that it is just plain silly and pointless to
talk about which languages are most popular and which are gaining or
losing in the popularity race for the future. I hope those people will
just ignore this thread or at least not flame me too hotly ;-)))

Ron Stephens