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From: ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Command Languages Versus Programming Languages
Date: 1 Apr 2024 14:16:33 GMT
Organization: Stefan Ram
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Johanne Fairchild <jfairchild@tudado.org> wrote or quoted:
>A scripting language is a programming language made for a hypothetical
>machine, not too different from a programming language made for a real
>machine, one made of hardware.

  I think of the type system: 

  In a non-scripting programming language, the types often are
  based on hardware, like "16 bit integer", and typing is often
  handled in a static and rather strict way. Higher types, like
  strings whose size can change at run time, are often missing.

  Scripting languages are often less strictly typed, some rely entirely
  on strings which are interpreted as integers if necessary. Often
  one has no control over the internal represention of data, so one
  cannot access a library using the ABI or write a device driver in a
  scripting language. Explicit type conversions are rarely required.

  Also, resource handling:

  Scripting languages handle the memory for you. In a scripting
  language, you cannot call "malloc" to obtain the obligation to
  free this piece of memory exactly once in the future. They are
  garbage collected.