Scripting programming languages/Talk

"Scripting programming languages are computer programs that are interpreted not compiled."

This is clearly incorrect, in many ways. A programming language is not an interpreted language or a compiled one; programming languages are interpreted or compiled by computer programs. You can compile or interpret C, you can compile or interpret Basic. The issue of whether or not a programming language is a scripting programming language is orthogonal. The real distinction is that a scripting programming language is good for scripting some system. For instance, C is a good language for scripting Unix. So is Perl.

[1 minute later]: Oh, someone beat me to it, while I was writing the above. Cool.

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Yeah, I fixed it, but the issues aren't 100% orthogonal, either: Scripting languages are more often interpreted than compiled, and non-scripting languages are more often compiled than interpreted, for the good reason that their syntaxes are designed to make one or the other easier. Anyone who uses the term "scripting language" in even the remotest connection to C is making the term utterly meaningless. C is the ultimate anti-scripting language. Yes, there have been various attempts to interpret C with various levels of success, but all of them are awkward and incomplete because C just isn't designed that way; it expects a compiler and a linker to resolve things. The text I think reflects this now, but if you can think of a better way to say that, I'd be pleased. --Lee Daniel Crocker