On Thu, 18 Nov 2010 15:41:51 +0000, Grant Edwards wrote: > On 2010-11-18, Martin Gregorie <mar...@address-in-sig.invalid> wrote: >> On Thu, 18 Nov 2010 01:16:34 +0000, MRAB wrote: >> >>> I'd probably say that a "script" is a program which is normally not >>> interactive: you just set it up, start it, and let it do its work (a >>> "batch script", for example). It's also written in a language >>> primarily designed for convenience rather than speed (Want to >>> manipulate large chunks of text? Fine! :-)). >>> >> I use 'script' to refer to programs written in languages that don't >> have a separate compile phase which must be run before the program can >> be executed. IOW Python and Perl programs are scripts aloing with >> programs written as awk, Javascript and bash scripts. > > I use 'script' to refer to programs that are used to automate things > that would otherwise be done by a person typing commands. >
Its a long-standing UNIXism - it applies to any language implementation where you can add "#!/path/to/interpreter" as the first line of the source file, make the file executable with chmod and run it by treating the file name as a command. > IOW, what I write using Python aren't scripts. They're programs. > Anything with one or more executable lines is a program: #!/usr/bin/python print "\nHello, Python World\n" -- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org | -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list