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General Software Discussion / Re: Scripting vs. Programming
« on: March 03, 2009, 09:32 PM »
As far as I understand it, scripting is a form of programming that uses higher level constructs than traditional programming. In a standard high level programming language, expressions are built from variables operators and functions (Wikipedia, 1). In a scripting language much of this is the same, except you also have the ability to use operating system specific calls as well as calls to other scripts or programs. One could argue that scripting is just as daunting as programming. In any case, it’s silly to try to say one is harder than the other because it depends on the task at hand.
From my personal experience, scripting is used to automate tasks that could be done by a person. Most of the time, the tasks are just repetitive and tedious. It's much cheaper to pay a programmer to write a script than pay a person to sit all day in front of a terminal and do tedious routine work.
Most of the time, you can get away with writing a script to do something rather than programming it in a high level language. However, it is bad practice to do this because scripts are not very portable and they have inconsistent runtime characteristics when executed on different platforms. Scripts are usually only useful for performing administration functions and managing the operation of programs. Anything beyond that needs to be coded in a programming language that provides higher levels of abstraction.
1. Wikipedia. (January 18, 2009). Expression (programming). In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 3, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia....ression_(programming).
From my personal experience, scripting is used to automate tasks that could be done by a person. Most of the time, the tasks are just repetitive and tedious. It's much cheaper to pay a programmer to write a script than pay a person to sit all day in front of a terminal and do tedious routine work.
Most of the time, you can get away with writing a script to do something rather than programming it in a high level language. However, it is bad practice to do this because scripts are not very portable and they have inconsistent runtime characteristics when executed on different platforms. Scripts are usually only useful for performing administration functions and managing the operation of programs. Anything beyond that needs to be coded in a programming language that provides higher levels of abstraction.
1. Wikipedia. (January 18, 2009). Expression (programming). In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 3, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia....ression_(programming).