Scripting Language vs Programming Language

Question

Can anyone explain the difference between Scripting Language and Programming Language please?
Also can you state some examples for each. I have Googled a lot but I always find the best answers from Stack Overflow.

Answer 1

All scripting languages are programming languages.

Languages are not classed as script or not - it entirely depends on the execution environment.

If the environment is one that is interpreted, this is commonly referred to as a scripting environment.

Answer 2

The differences are becoming fewer and less important. Traditionally, scripting languages extend existing programs... I think that's the main definition of "scripting" is that it refers to writing a set of instructions for an existing entity to perform. However, where scripting languages started with proprietary and colloquial syntax, most of the prevalent ones these days owe some relationship to C.

I think the "interpreted vs compiled" distinction is really a symptom of extending an existing program (with a built in interpreter), rather than an intrinsic difference. What programmers and laymen are more concerned about is, "what is the programmer doing?" The fact that one program is interpreted and another is compiled means very little in determining the difference in activity by the creator. You don't judge a playwright on whether his plays are more commonly read aloud or performed on stage, do you?

Answer 3

Scripting languages are programming languages that don't require an explicit compilation step.

For example, in the normal case, you have to compile a C program before you can run it. But in the normal case, you don't have to compile a JavaScript program before you run it. So JavaScript is sometimes called a "scripting" language.

This line is getting more and more blurry since compilation can be so fast with modern hardware and modern compilation techniques. For instance, V8, the JavaScript engine in Google Chrome and used a lot outside of the browser as well, actually compiles the JavaScript code on the fly into machine code, rather than interpreting it. (In fact, V8's an optimizing two-phase compiler.)

Also note that whether a language is a "scripting" language or not can be more about the environment than the language. There's no reason you can't write a C interpreter and use it as a scripting language (and people have). There's also no reason you can't compile JavaScript to machine code and store that in an executable file (and people have). The language Ruby is a good example of this: The original implementation was entirely interpreted (a "scripting" language), but there are now multiple compilers for it.

Some examples of "scripting" languages (e.g., languages that are traditionally used without an explicit compilation step):

• Lua
• JavaScript
• VBScript and VBA
• Perl

And a small smattering of ones traditionally used with an explicit compilation step:

• C
• C++
• D
• Java (but note that Java is compiled to bytecode, which is then interpreted and/or recompiled at runtime)
• Pascal

...and then you have things like Python that sit in both camps: Python is widely used without a compilation step, but the main implementation (CPython) does that by compiling to bytecode on-the-fly and then running the bytecode in a VM, and it can write that bytecode out to files (.pyc, .pyo) for use without recompiling.

That's just a very few, if you do some research you can find a lot more.

Answer 4

Programming Language : Is compiled to machine code and run on the hardware of the underlying Operating System.

Scripting Language : Is unstructure subset of programming language. It is generally interpreted. it basically "scripts" other things to do stuff. The primary focus isn't primarily building your own apps but getting an existing app to act the way you want, e.g. JavaScript for browsers, TCL etc.,

*** But there are situation where a programming language is converted to interpreter and vice-verse like use have a C interpreter where you can 'C' Script. Scripts are generally written to control an application behaviour where as Programming Language is use to build applications. But beware that the demarcation is blurring day - by - day as an example of Python it depends on how one uses the language.

Answer 5

I think that what you are stating as the "difference" is actually a consequence of the real difference.

The actual difference is the target of the code written. Who is going to run this code.

A scripting language is used to write code that is going to target a software system. It's going to automate operations on that software system. The script is going to be a sequence of instructions to the target software system.

A programming language targets the computing system, which can be a real or virtual machine. The instructions are executed by the machine.

Of course, a real machine understands only binary code so you need to compile the code of a programming language. But this is a consequence of targeting a machine instead of a program.

In the other hand, the target software system of an script may compile the code or interpret it. Is up to the software system.

If we say that the real difference is whether it is compiled or not, then we have a problem because when Javascript runs in V8 is compiled and when it runs in Rhino is not.

It gets more confusing since scripting languages have evolved to become very powerful. So they are not limited to create small scripts to automate operations on another software system, you can create any rich applications with them.

Python code targets an interpreter so we can say that it "scripts" operations on that interpreter. But when you write Python code you don't see it as scripting an interpreter, you see it as creating an application. The interpreter is just there to code at a higher level among other things. So for me Python is more a programming language than an scripting language.

Answer 6

I'm in a discord with the fact that languages using interpreters are scripting languages and the one gets compiled are programming languages. We can develop an interpreter or compiler for any language. Interpreted environment suits web scripting better and makes it easier that's why we have it.

Well, I feel like there isn't any difference between scripting language and programming language. It's all about getting the job done. When it comes to web related tasks we call them Web scripts considering small task and that way we may also call the system related tasks as system or OS level scripts and the programming language we use to accomplish those tasks as system scripting languages.

Also it's not so that one cannot write system level code in Python and Web scripts in C language (definitely one can do if we can establish the required platform and environment). But all it takes is too much of effort which may affect the time constraint for the rapid development and the small bit of latency reduced is not going to benefit us much in web scripts. But the wise versa is not true if we perform system level tasks in Python.

Bottom line: language selection depends upon the nature of the task to be performed and discriminating a language as scripting language is a myth.