Re: Command Languages Versus Programming Languages

On Fri, 29 Mar 2024 01:14:18 -0000 (UTC)
Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

At one time, we distinguished between “scripting” languages and
“programming” languages. To begin with, the “scripting” languages were
somehow more limited in functionality than full-fledged “programming”
languages. Or they were slower, because they were interpreted.
>
Then languages like Perl and Java came along: both were compiled to a
bytecode, a sort of pseudo-machine-language, which was interpreted by
software, not CPU hardware. Were they “scripting” or “programming”
languages? Some might have classed Perl as a “scripting” language to

My rule of thimb is that a scripting language is one whereby the source code
can be run immediately by the interpreter, eg perl, python, regardless of
what happens internally. A full fledged programming language is one that
requires a compile/debug/link step first with the compiler and runtime (if
required) being seperate. eg Java, C