> Developers have steadily marched upwards from Assembly to C to Java to, today, scripting languages like Ruby and Python.
Since when does being a dynamic language and not having to have a main() function make you a "scripting language?" I didn't know people still said those words.
It's not the dynamism, or the lack of a main() that makes Ruby & Python scripting languages. It's the fact that you don't have to compile them before executing them.
The phrase "scripting language" makes less and less sense in a world where C interpreters exist (e.g. Ch, CSL, picoc, CINT, tcc -run), and in a world where Ruby, Python and PHP have compiled implementations (both JIT and AOT against various virtual machines and native targets).
I think the point is that you cannot group them like that.
Static typed languages vs dynamic type languages is a much better separation but even then it is grey.
The pejorative "scripting language" was a term that Sun pushed really hard a while ago to separate them from "real" languages (i.e. Java) that you would trust your company to.
[Edit] I may have mis-remembered and it it might have been Oracle rather than Sun trying to dismiss "scripting languages" as toy languages at the time.
> The pejorative "scripting language" was a term that Sun pushed really hard a while ago to separate them from "real" languages (i.e. Java) that you would trust your company to.
Fascinating. I do believe this without hesitation, but for the sake of sharing this in other social circles, is it the sort of claim that's possible to find a citation for?
I remember reading about it in an article where they got their hands on a "guideline document" for an expo (One of the big Java ones) for Sun/Oracle people.
In it it basically talked about the need for constant low-level differentiation and playing-down of scripting languages.
The link you posted above is the kind of thing this encouraged. Don't be actively hostile but more "Oh, a scripting language? How cute"
Sounds reasonable but a bit outdated. Then again who would've guessed that historical ubiquity of JS scripting language would eventually put it on server side?
I have no trouble believing that any (or even many) players abused and over-extended the distinction for their various ends, but it appears Ousterhout (author of Tcl) was using "scripting language" before Java came on the scene. In that case, it clearly wasn't intended pejoratively. I would like better sources than I've been able to find, though...
"Python is a programming language that lets you work quickly
and integrate systems more effectively." - it's about integration (where dynamic scripting can shine).
"It occurred to me that a scripting language with a syntax like ABC but with access to the Amoeba system calls would fill the need." - it was created as a scripting language.
"Can Python be compiled ...? Not easily. ... a “compiled” Python program would probably consist mostly of calls into the Python run-time system, even for seemingly simple operations like x+1.
...
... improves the start-up time of Python scripts. ... Note that the main script executed by Python ... Usually main scripts are quite short, so this doesn’t cost much speed." - no comments.
Of course now it's increasingly being marketed as a general purpose programming language because it makes devs feel better.
heh but isn't it also the reverse as well? it's an insult laid at Java insinuating that it is not nearly as lean/simple/modern. That's the feeling these flamewar phrasings leave me with anyway.
I left Ruby for the JVM and I'll never look back despite all these articles implying Java is not "modern" because it lacks all the features that make scripting language devs "so much faster". Rock-solid, efficient, type-checked code on an efficient platform should be considered modern as well :D
that said, i love Clojure so it's not like i'm a hater -- i just like Java interoperability & don't see the coding paradigms as mutually exclusive. Can't we all just git along?
Since when does being a dynamic language and not having to have a main() function make you a "scripting language?" I didn't know people still said those words.