I personally draw a distinction between “real” programming languages and scripting languages. Scripting languages being languages that are traditionally source distributed. They tend to be much easier to write, run slower, often but not always dynamically typed, and operate at a higher level than “real” programming languages. That’s not to say they aren’t actually useful or difficult to learn etc. It’s not a demeaning separation, just a useful categorization IMO. Not to say the categorization always holds water in all those attributes, luajit is way faster than Java but it does follow the other bits. As someone who loves C there are lots of languages that seem too limiting and high level, doesn’t mean they aren’t useful tho.
Yeah I agree, they are but I guess what I’m trying to get at is in day to day conversation I use “programming language” as a term for compiled languages hence “real” and “scripting language” for scripting languages. I never say “real” in conversation, just in the context of this post and as I mentioned it’s not to say scripting languages aren’t good languages, just how I separate them. Your distinction is much better in more comparative dialog such as this
That line is blurring to the point where it barely exists any more. Compiled languages are becoming increasingly dynamic (e.g. JIT compilation, code generation at runtime) and interpreted languages are getting compiled. JavaScript is a great example: V8 uses LLVM (a traditional compiler) to optimize and compile hot functions into machine code.
IMO the only definition of “real” programming language that makes any sense is a (Turing complete) language you can realistically build production systems with. Anything else is pointlessly pedantic or gatekeeping.
I’m aware of the increasing prevalence of JIT, that doesn’t change the other markers I listed. Ironically though the language the post is about, CPython still lacks JIT. Also I disagree in general, there are things scripting languages can’t do and will never be practical for. It’s not that they aren’t useful programming languages, that’s not what I’m saying but I think having a separate category for them is useful.
I personally draw a distinction between “real” programming languages and scripting languages. Scripting languages being languages that are traditionally source distributed. They tend to be much easier to write, run slower, often but not always dynamically typed, and operate at a higher level than “real” programming languages. That’s not to say they aren’t actually useful or difficult to learn etc. It’s not a demeaning separation, just a useful categorization IMO. Not to say the categorization always holds water in all those attributes, luajit is way faster than Java but it does follow the other bits. As someone who loves C there are lots of languages that seem too limiting and high level, doesn’t mean they aren’t useful tho.
Surely “compiled” Vs “scripting” langs is better than throwing around (at best) meaningless terms like “real”
Yeah I agree, they are but I guess what I’m trying to get at is in day to day conversation I use “programming language” as a term for compiled languages hence “real” and “scripting language” for scripting languages. I never say “real” in conversation, just in the context of this post and as I mentioned it’s not to say scripting languages aren’t good languages, just how I separate them. Your distinction is much better in more comparative dialog such as this
That line is blurring to the point where it barely exists any more. Compiled languages are becoming increasingly dynamic (e.g. JIT compilation, code generation at runtime) and interpreted languages are getting compiled. JavaScript is a great example: V8 uses LLVM (a traditional compiler) to optimize and compile hot functions into machine code.
IMO the only definition of “real” programming language that makes any sense is a (Turing complete) language you can realistically build production systems with. Anything else is pointlessly pedantic or gatekeeping.
I’m aware of the increasing prevalence of JIT, that doesn’t change the other markers I listed. Ironically though the language the post is about, CPython still lacks JIT. Also I disagree in general, there are things scripting languages can’t do and will never be practical for. It’s not that they aren’t useful programming languages, that’s not what I’m saying but I think having a separate category for them is useful.