What are these Scripting Languages???

How Scripting Languages differs from Programming Languages.

Scripting languages are a specific kind of computer languages that can use to give instructions to other software such as a web browser, server or standalone application.

Widely used in web development as well as used in,

• Operating systems
• Statistical analysis software
• Office application
• Game engines and many more…

Scripting:

Scripting is essentially writing a series of commands that are interpreted one by one, by an application or scripting engine.

Lets see what are the differences between Scripting Languages and Programming Languages:

1. Interpreted vs Compiled

• Normally you know programming languages are compiled, because they have their own compiler. That compiler translate the syntax into machine language before the runtime (at compile time).
• But, Most of Scripting languages do not have their own compiler. So they are Interpreted. That means it execute line by line when running the script.
• Some Scripting languages have their own compiler, but they also treated as scripting languages. (Python, Groovy)

2. Platform Dependency

• Programming languages are Platform — agnostic. (Cross platform). Because they can execute themselves.
• But Scripting languages are Platform — specific. Because most of them do not have own compiler.

3. Speed

• Programming languages are faster in one time compilation time but slower at development stage.
• Because, It compiles the whole syntax to machine language and it run by the machine and it was faster. But at the development time, it must compile the whole code each time we do changes. So it is slower.
• Scripting languages are Faster at development stage but slower at one time execution time.
• Because, It interpreted line by line then it gain more time when running at single execution time. But in the development stage, it do not need to go through the whole code when we did a change. It just interpret the change.

4. Developing stage

• Programming languages can develop a standalone application or a mobile application without using scripting languages.
• But, Scripting languages cannot develop a standalone application or a mobile application alone. That means it must a Programming language to develop a complete application.

Examples for Scripting Languages.

• JavaScript
• Python
• PHP
• Ruby
• Groovy
• Perl
• Bash
• R