What is Python?!

[Grant Edwards]

On 2005-08-11, Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 15:51:45 +1200, Evil Bastard <spam at me.please>
> declaimed the following in comp.lang.python:
>
>> To me, the term is archic. What 'scripting language' means to me is:
>>  1. insufficient facilities for general purpose or 'serious' programming
>>  2. ability to get simple useful programs up and working quickly
>
[...]

> 	To me, that is "scripting" -- using one program to feed commands
> to another. Those applications that supplied a function library allowed
> for usage closer to VBA/COM style... import the library, then call
> functions directly.

To me, a "scripting language" is one intended to "sumulate" a
user: a language that is used to run other programs in
more-or-less the same manner a normal user would.  Something
that is intended to be used to automate a sequence of
operations that would otherwise be performed by a user typing or clicking
in a UI.

Bash is a scripting language.  Python isn't.  

When compared with something like bash, in Python it's not
particularly easy to run other programs and manipulate the
programs' input/output streams.  It can be done, but the
semantics used to do so are identical to C (which nobody seems
to think is a scripting language).

Python is a general purposeprogramming language.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  Hey, I LIKE that
                                  at               POINT!!
                               visi.com