Scripting Languages (was Re: Techniques for writing an interpreter)

> On Fri, 20 Mar 1998, Mark Harrison wrote:
> > I think that Scheme faces an uphill battle as a generally accepted
> > ...
> > unpleasant to use.


Our moderator nattered:
> [Sounds to me like that would make it utterly unusable. It's bad
> enough with Javascript and VBscript in the MS web browser. Scripting
> languages are usually used for relatively small programs that glue
> together large existing pieces of stuff, so you want high-level data
> structures and a syntax that lets you write two-line scripts in two
> lines, if that's all the script you happen to need. If we want C or
> Pascal, we know where to find them. -John]


A quick question: What are the key differences between a scripting
language and an ordinary programming language? That is, what is it
about a language that makes it better or worse for the uses described
above?


Chris
--
Dr. Christopher L. Reedy, Mail Stop Z551
Mitretek Systems, 7525 Colshire Drive, McLean, VA 22102-7400
Email: creedy@mitretek.org Phone: (703) 610-1615 FAX: (703) 610-1603
[Well, I've dug my hole, might as well jump into it. Seems to me that
you have a tension between languages that let you write simple one
line hacks and languages that give you the structure you need for
large programs. C and Pascal are pretty far toward the latter,
scripting languages more toward the former. Scripting languages
usually also offer quick turnaround, you can type one line and it does
it right away. But I realize that people have put together fairly
large applications in TCL, even though TCL doesn't offer the name
spaces and data structuring that you'd usually want for a large
program. -John]








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