9 replies to this topic

[vijay.gupta]

Can anyone please let me know the difference between application programming (for eg: c,c++,asp.net etc) and scripting language (for eg: php, vbscript, javascript etc)?

[vijay.gupta]

Can anyone please answer this? I will ask the specific query after the response to this post.

[terry1966]

i would of said programming languages control the hardware and scripting tells the program language what it needs done, so scripting is a layer above the programming language, so slightly slower, to the end user, there is no difference tho.

but i found a link that i think explains things much better than i could. :- http://www.killersit...e-a-difference/

[vijay.gupta]

Thanks terry for the response..i have a query regarding the usage of scripting language. Scripting language is generally used for some automation work. It is valid as per your above post that it controls programming language.. Scripting language is also used in both client and server side programming. The rationale for using client side scripting is: we don't want browser to send request to server for everything so we embed script in html for some actions which don't require browser to contact server and be executed at the client side, thus faster. For example: select all checkbox, all the states of U.S. are populated in the state drop down after selecting U.S. in the country drop down. Similarly, i just want to know the rationale for using server side scripting? Also, please let me know if i am wrong any where.

[terry1966]

this is way out of my comfort area, but will try and answer.. lets use your example and the web page needs to know where your located, now the web page designer, might use a script on the server side to use that information provided by you to change what he can lawfully send you. so if your in the u.s. you would see a video when you click on a link, but if you were anywhere else you would get a message saying sorry copyright laws prohibit us from showing you this video.(they would actual use different methods of getting your location tho ) so in other words they would use a script to automatically change what location on their servers they will get the information you see in your web browser. the programming at their end handles the technical details of how data is passed from them to you and the scripting handles exactly what that data is that you finally see as a web page. hope that helps answer your question.

[vijay.gupta]

Thanks Terry for the quick response. Though I understood what you are saying but not very clear. I will try to explain it more clearly where is the problem:

I understood this "if your in the u.s. you would see a video when you click on a link, but if you were anywhere else you would get a message saying sorry copyright laws prohibit us from showing you this video.(they would actual use different methods of getting your location tho)"

I did not get the bolded portion when you say this " in other words they would use a script to automatically change what location on their servers they will get the information you see in your web browser.

the programming at their end handles the technical details of how data is passed from them to you and the scripting handles exactly what that data is that you finally see as a web page."

[terry1966]

ok,

technical details of how data is passed

they way computers talk to one another never changes, they send and receive packets of data(0's and 1's), so it's the programmes job to establish this connection, interpret the data received then send back data when needed/requested, so "technical details".

what location on their servers

computers are computers no matter cost/where they are and everything has to be stored in a certain order/place if a server(computer) needs to send you the "video" data it will be in one place/file if it needs to send you the "sorry notice" data that will be in a different place/file.

what that data is that you finally see as a web page

now when web browsing this forum, it's always the same programme that sends/receives you/r data but it's the scripts that go off and find what data(0's and 1's) it needs to send to you,
what data is needed depends on which link you have clicked on, and is stored in a different place, this is then passed to the programme to be sent to you.

each page is seen by you has something different, a black line, picture or a letter but to a pc it is all seen as the same thing, lot's of 0's and 1's, it's just the order of those numbers change, depending on what page your looking at.

what you see on a screen looks nice and can be understood but to a pc it's just a lot of lights that it needs to turn on or off depending on what order the 0's and 1's are received in. 0 being off and 1 being on.

that better??

Edited by terry1966, 17 October 2010 - 12:25 AM.

[vijay.gupta]

Ok....what I infer now is how the data is sent is handled by the protocol, that is HTTP, how the data will look to the user on the computer after opening the website is defined by the programming language, that is HTML and which data will be shown/response will be given to the user based to user's ip address/input etc is defined by the scripting langauage that is used at the server side, for eg: CGI. Please let me know if I understood it correctly.

[terry1966]

sounds about right to me. but don't forget it's a lot more complicated in reality, not least because programming/scripting are more or less the same.

[vijay.gupta]

thanks terry for the response!!