A scripting language is a programming language which is interpreted at runtime instead of being compiled to machine code. A language can be executed in different ways - interpreted orcompiled (to bytecode or machine code). Traditionally, when talking about the difference about scripting vs. programming, scripting languages are interpreted and programming languages are compiled. Basically, all scripting languages are programming languages. The theoretical difference between the two is that scripting languages do not require the compilation step and are rather interpreted .
The spectrum of scripting languages ranges from very small and highly domain-specific languages to general-purposeprogramming languages used for scripting. The most basic scripting interface developed at W3C is the DOM, the Document Object Model which allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure and style of documents. DOMspecifications form the core of DHTML . Scripting can make Web pages more dynamic. For example, without reloading a new version of a page it may allow modifications to the content of that page, or allow content to be added to or sent from that page.
Scripting languages are becoming more popular due to the emergence of web-based applications. Although scripts are widely employed in the programming world, they have recently become more associated with the World Wide Web , where they have been used extensively to create dynamic Web pages. While technically there are many client-side scripting languages that can be used on the Web, in practice it means using JavaScript. Applications for JavaScript span from interactive websites to the Internet of Things, making it a great choice for beginners and experienced developers looking to learn a new programming language