On 5/11/2010, at 1:00 PM, Donn Cave wrote:
I don't care about whether Python had any influence, but I'd sure like to stamp out the "scripting language" rumor.
In this case it may be the Haskell community to blame. Google for Haskell script and you will find, for example, "Learn you a Haskell for Great Good!" where the introduction page says "GHC can take a Haskell script (they usually have a .hs extension) and compile it". That author is not alone in habitually calling .hs files "scripts". I remember trying to get a certain academic to call Haskell programs *programs*, but he insisted that "scripts" was the only right word. That Google search finds plenty of other sites using the same terminology. I think I even found it in a book once. And need I remind you that www.haskell.org/cabal/proposal/x444.html calls Setup.lhs "the setup *script*"?
I suppose the confusion may begin with system scripting languages, like the UNIX shell or REXX, where the parallel between an OS and an application may not be as obvious
In fact the Korn shell *is* an application scripting language. The debugger in Solaris uses ksh as a scripting language, and AT&T used it for many other things.