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

[simo]

I always thought "scripting language" means interpreted instead of
compiled into machine code (not bytecode).

Although where that definition puts Java, I don't know.....

As far as [popularity] ranking goes, I would say with 99% confidence
that Perl is #1 for web and sysadmin applications.

For web apps, I'd then say PHP, for sysadmin or prototyping tasks, I'd
say Python would be #2.