In my view, a scripting language is one thing, and one thing only -- a language designed to run scripts. And scripts are lines of computer code that are used t

In my view, a scripting language is one thing, and one thing only -- a language designed to run scripts. And scripts are lines of computer code that are used to automate another application, and usually intended to be written by an end user (or power user, or their support personnel). Based on the above definition, lets look at some examples: * Communications App scripting (the scripting languages used on programs such as Procomm or Crosstalk, or the old log in scripts used on Trumpet Winsock). These obviously automate something the user would normally have to do manually. * Game scripting engines * Shell scripting -- this one is a bit tough. Most shell scripts are simple automation that replaces typing in several lines of commands. But some of them can be considered mini applications themselves. Now, based on the intended use (short, quick programs that doesn't take a lot of programming skill to create), these languages typically are interpreted, have dynamic un-typed variables, and little to no boilerplate or setup code. * Perl / Python / Ruby -- These I would classify as application languages, that happen to be interpreted. And because they are interpreted (like most scripting languages are), they have access to features that make scripting languages easy to use, such as dynamic un-typed variables and a loose syntax.