Scripting: higher level programming for the 21st Century

Author

Ousterhout, John K.

Volume

31

Issue

3

fYear

1998

fDate

3/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

23

Lastpage

30

Abstract

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

Keywords

authoring languages; programming; 21st Century; C; C++; Perl; Tcl; data structures; higher level programming; scripting; scripting languages; software components; system programming languages; Algorithm design and analysis; Application software; Assembly systems; Automatic generation control; Buildings; Computer aided instruction; Computer languages; Program processors; Programming profession; Registers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computer

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9162

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/2.660187

Filename

660187