Scripting Languages

Mahesh:

JavaScript does not execute only in a browser. JavaScript and VBScript can be executed without a browser in Windows using the CScript (for execution in a console) or WScript (for execution outside a console) commands. Scripts executed that way can access the file system without any need for special permission.

C++ and most compiled languages are compiled into machine code; the code that the processor executes directly. C++ can be the fastest code of all; it might even be faster than assembly language that essentially is the instructions used directly by the processor. The reason that C++ might be faster than Assembler code is that the C++ compiler usually can optimize the code it generates better than most Assembler programmers can optimize the code they write using an Assembler.

Most compiled languages can be implemented by a translator/interpreter or something such as that, making the language a scripting language. There is very little or nothing that most compiled languages do that can't be done when the language is used as a scripting language. Therefore it is misleading to call a language as either a scripting language or a programming language or a compiled language. C++ is called a compiled language because it is usually compiled. Therefore it is very misleading to say that scripting languages and programming languagea are two different things.

The Microsoft C++ compiler can generate managed code but only if the managed code option is used. If the code is unmanaged then the compiler generates machine code.

Programs written using C++ unmanaged code will be faster than programs executing as a script! The Unix and Linux operating systems are deveopled using C and/or C++! The communication system that became the intenet was initially developed mainly using Unix and the C language.

Most programs developed using C and C++ execute in systems in which severs and clients are not relevant.

[Anything and everything that run on a computer is a programming language.]

I disagree with you Suthish. Your answer may be misleading. I think he specifically meant by a scripting language and programming language. Both are two different things.

Another characteristic of scripting languages is that they're usually 'weakly typed'


You don't need to worry too much about the types you're using because the interpreter figures them out at runtime.


In contrast, most 'heavy duty' programming languages such as C++, C# and Java are strongly typed. You need to declare the types you're using at compile time so that the compiler can check (as far as possible) that you're not using them incorrectly.


This means that development is easier and quicker using scripting languages but you tend to get more errors at runtime unless you do a lot of 'unit testing' beforehand.


Also, script code tends to execute more slowly at runtime, partly because its interpreted and partly because the interpreter has more work to do to figure out the types.

If you mean the difference between a script language like VB script, JavaScripts and a compiled language like C#, JAVA, the difference could very, very easilly be described like this;

- A "script language" is interpered as it executes by a script host/interperer

- A "programming language" is interpered into machine readable code when it is created, by a compiler, and executes managed by the operating system