What is Python?!

[phil hunt]

On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 15:51:45 +1200, Evil Bastard <spam at me.please> wrote:
>
>I guess a language could be called a 'scripting language' if:
> - the source code can be executed directly, and/or
> - source need not be converted to a separate file in a
>   non-human-readable format before it can be executed, and/or
> - a change to the source file automatically causes a change in
>   runtime behaviour
>
>By these, Python is most definitely a scripting language, and joins Perl
>and PHP. Whereas changes to java source files don't change runtime
>behaviour.

It wouldn't be particularly difficult to invoke Java by a shell 
script that checks to see if source has changed and if so 
recompiles it. If such a script became part of standard Java, would 
Java then be a scripting language?

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