1. Scripting Languages
Info derived largely from Programming Language Pragmatics, by Michael Scott

2. Conventional Languages
Stress efficiency, maintainability, portability, static detection of errors

3. Scripting Languages
Stress flexibility, rapid development, local customization and dynamic (run-time) checking
Embrace high-level concepts like tables, patterns, lists and files*
Often used as “glue” to connect useful components from other languages
More recently, includes scripting capabilities to add dynamic behavior to the web
* capabilities also in traditional languages, but may be in libraries

4. Common characteristics
Often no specific main function
Often includes interactive (interpreted) use
Tend to be more concise
System.out.println(“hello”);
puts “hello”
Minimize or eliminate declarations
Most are dynamically typed

5. Common characteristics*, cont.
Simple scoping rules
Some are global by default (e.g., Perl)
Some are local by default (e.g., PHP)
Scoping rules vary widely
Tend to have more direct access to OS functions
Often rely on pattern matching and flexible string manipulation

6. What do we use them for? (domains)
Command languages (e.g., bash) often manipulate files, argument and commands.
Includes options like redirection, piping, execution, simple data types (e.g., string).
Text processing (e.g., sed, awk) common… think of patterns in file names, etc.
Mathematics and statistics
Maple, Mathematica, Matlab, R
Provide support for numerical methods, symbolic math, data visualization, modeling

7. Domains, continued General purpose Extension languages
Perl, Tcl, Python, Ruby
Extension languages
Allow users to create new commands
AutoCAD, Maya, Director, Flash have scripting languages
GIMP can be scripted in Scheme, Tcl, Python, Perl and others

8. Domains, continued Web Server side, such as PHP, CGI
Client side, such as JavaScript