> a significant distinction between a scripting language or not: whether it needs a compiler. The characteristic you're describing is "delivered as executable

> a significant distinction between a scripting language or not: whether it needs a compiler. The characteristic you're describing is "delivered as executable source code" rather than "needs a compiler". I'm currently dealing with a project (GForge) that delivers some of its PHP code encrypted. Painful. You could also ship Python projects as .pyc files. On the other side of the fence, you can also use interpreted C without a compiler: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch_interpreter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch_interpreter (But I agree with the main idea - if the project is delivered with executable source code, it's much easier to customize!) kb