Scripting: higher level programming for the 21st Century

TLDR

A fundamental shift is underway from low‑level system languages such as C and C++ to high‑level scripting languages like Perl and Tcl, driven by the need to glue existing components rather than build data structures from scratch. The article argues that scripting languages will outperform system programming languages in many tasks over the next century.

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.