Terminology: "script" versus "program"

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:22:04 +0000, samwyse wrote:

>> The term "script" has the strong connotation of a limited-purpose
>> program designed to solve a problem expressed almost entirely as a
>> simple series of steps. Languages that are often used to write such
>> scripts are usually referred to as "scripting languages", which becomes
>> a denigration because such a language need not have support for much
>> else.
> 
> I strongly disagree with your interpretation.  Scritping languages
> provide high-level facilites for process control.  Historically, they
> were purely interpretive but now they tend to compile to some sort of
> byte code.  Examples include the various shells, Rexx, and various
> languages whose names start with "P".  

Do you have a source for your claim that the shells (e.g. Linux/Unix 
shells bash, ksh, zsh, etc. or Windows shells cmd.exe, command.com) are 
compiled to byte code? I don't believe this is the case, I understand 
that they are typically "immediate interpreted" languages, that is, each 
line in interpreted from source code immediately before being executed, 
as often as it takes.

Note to purists: yes, I know that being interpreted or compiled is a 
property of the implementation, not the language. But when all the 
implementations of a language (where "all" might mean "the only one"), I 
think it is reasonable to blur the lines.


> Languages which only express a
> "series of steps" are generally called batch languages.

Maybe in the Windows/DOS world, but not typically in the Linux/Unix 
world, where they are called scripting languages.


> I've never
> heard anyone refer to a .BAT file as a script.

Linux/Unix/Mac admins may be excused for saying that they've never come 
across a .BAT file at all.

$ locate .bat | wc -l
14

Oh well, what do you know! I've got fourteen of the beggars. Hmmm... two 
are in the Python standard lib, two are in wxPython, six seem to be in 
the game Abuse, a couple of false positives, and a few odd files.

$ locate .sh | wc -l
606



-- 
Steven