Programming: Understanding Scripting Languages

Ever since I started working with Javascript, the question of why is called a Scripting Language was always something I wanted to understand. So I am writing this post to note and share with anyone who has a similar query.

What are Scripting Languages

Scripting languages are programming languages in which programs are written for a runtime environment.

The programs written in a scripting language are called Scripts!

Now, what does that mean, not like the programming languages which need compiling the program first and then the program is executed in a development environment, programs written in scripting languages can run without compiling the code.

How are scripting languages different from Programming languages

Scripting languages are usually interpreted on runtime!
Compared to compiling the program ahead of time and then executing in the case of programming languages like C or Java.
Considering the scripting languages are interpreted these are usually slower than the compiled programming languages.
Although this should not just be the only criteria, whether a language will behave like a scripting language or a programming language is dependent on the environment in which the program runs.
Depending upon the environment you can also run a C program with an interpreter and a Javascript program with a compiler, an example of that is the Chromes V8 engine used in NodeJS.

Where are Scripting Languages used

Scripting languages are usually used there are use cases of integrating modules or interfaces written in different languages, in which case it can also sometimes be considered as a glue language.
Programs where you need to automate any tasks.

Some popular scripting languages are

Javascript
Python
Bash
Perl
Ruby

Conclusion

Scripting languages are languages whose programs can at runtime perform the required actions. General use cases for scripting languages are to provide a binding between two interfaces written in different languages or to automate any task.

If you liked the post or if it helped you understand Scripting Languages please hit a like so that I can understand if it was helpful to someone, and will motivate me to write more.

If you find anything wrong in the above post please feel free to add your comment as feedback, I would really appreciate that.

Thanks for reading!