[OT] difference of Scripting and programming

[Ian Puleston]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: fedora-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:fedora-list-
> bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Nathaniel Hall
> 
> My personal thought is that programs are compiled prior to the user
> executing it.  A script is compiled at the time it
> is run.  Is that a good way to differentiate them?

Not really since Basic is a programming language that's usually interpreted
rather than compiled. I'm sure most of us know what is scripting and what is
programming, the problem is putting that down in words. My attempt would be:

Programming is writing a program of statements that tell something what to
do. Computer programming is writing a program of statements that tells the
computer directly (or through an interpreter) what to do.

Scripting is a type of programming that involves writing a script of
commands that tell some other program, such as a shell or editor, what to
do.

I'd say that's pretty simple and clear cut.
Ian