new forum -- homework help/chit chat/easy communication

[Donn Cave]

Quoth Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>:
| Lasse Vågsæther Karlsen <lasse at vkarlsen.no> writes:
...
|> I think that at one time, scripting languages was something that lived
|> within other programs, like Office, and couldn't be used by themselves
|> without running it inside that program, and as thus was a way to add
|> minor functions and things to that program.
|
| That's certainly one kind of scripting language. But I don't think
| it's ever been the only kind - shells have always been stand-alone
| applications. What they have in common with your definition is that
| both types of languages are used to capture user actions for later
| repetition. And that's what makes a scripting language: it's a
| language in which one writes "scripts" that describe actions -
| normally taken by a user - so that a series of them can be performed
| automatically.

I don't think the shell is any exception - I think it's reasonable to
see it as a control+UI language embedded in the UNIX operating system.
It wouldn't really be a very useful stand-alone application on a computer
platform without the same basic properties.

	Donn Cave, donn at drizzle.com