A scripting language or script language is a programming language that supports the writing of scripts, programs written for a software environment that automate the execution of tasks which could alternatively be executed one by one by a human operator.

Scripts can be written and executed on the fly, without explicit compile and link steps; they are typically created or modified by the person executing them. A scripting language is usually interpreted from source code or bytecode. By contrast, the software environment the scripts are written for is typically written in a compiled language and distributed in machine code form; the user may not have access to its source code, let alone be able to modify it.

The spectrum of scripting languages ranges from very small and highly domain-specific languages to general-purpose programming languages. The term script is typically reserved for small programs (up to a few thousand lines of code).

Notes

1. Okay, but which scripting language should I use? Choose the language that's most appropriate for the problem you're trying to solve. If you're interested in marketability, see the TIOBE Programming Community Index for measures and trends of scripting languages' relative popularity.

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripting_language
2. TIOBE Programming Community Index