Scripting: higher level programming for the 21st Century
Ousterhout, J.K.
Computer
Volume 31, Issue 3, Mar 1998 Page(s):23 - 30
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/2.660187
Summary:A fundamental change is occurring in the way people write computer
programs, away from system programming languages such as C or C++ to
scripting languages such as Perl or Tcl. Although many people are
participating in the change, few realize that the change is occurring
and even fewer know why it is happening. This article explains why
scripting languages will handle many of the programming tasks in the
next century better than system programming languages. System
programming languages were designed for building data structures and
algorithms from scratch, starting from the most primitive computer
elements. Scripting languages are designed for gluing. They assume the
existence of a set of powerful components and are intended primarily for
connecting components
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