Defination of Scripting Languages:

A scripting language, script language or extension language is a programming

language that allows control of one or more software applications. "Scripts" are distinct
from the core code of the application, which is usually written in a different language,
and are often created or at least modified by the end-user. Scripts are often interpreted
from source code or bytecode, wheras the applications they control are traditionally
compiled to native machine code. Scripting languages are nearly always embedded in the
applications they control.

The name "script" is derived from the written script of the performing arts, in which
dialogue is set down to be spoken by human actors. Early script languages were often
called batch languages or job control languages. Such early scripting languages were
created to shorten the traditional edit-compile-link-run process.

An example many people have used is a web browser like Firefox. Firefox is written in
C/C++ and can be controlled by Javascript

Types of scripting languages

Job control languages and shells

A major class of scripting languages has grown out of the automation of job control,
which relates to starting and controlling the behavior of system programs. (In this sense,
one might think of shells as being descendants of IBM's JCL, or Job Control Language,
which was used for exactly this purpose.) Many of these languages' interpreters double as
command-line interpreters such as the Unix shell or the MS-DOS COMMAND.COM. Others,
such as AppleScript, add scripting capability to computing environments lacking a
command-line interface.

GUI Scripting

With the advent of graphical user interfaces came a specialized kind of scripting language
for controlling a computer. These languages interact with the same graphic windows,
menus, buttons, and so on that a system generates. They do this by simulating the actions
of a human user. These languages are typically used to automate user actions or configure
a standard state. Such languages are also called "macros" when control is through
simulated key presses or mouse clicks.

These languages could In principle be used to control any application running on a GUI-
based computer; but, in practice, the support for such languages typically depends on the
application and operating system. There are a few exceptions to this limitation. Some
GUI scripting languages are based on recognizing graphical objects from their display
screen pixels. These GUI scripting languages do not depend on support from the
operating system, or application.

Application-specific languages

Many large application programs include an idiomatic scripting language tailored to the
needs of the application user. Likewise, many computer game systems use a custom
scripting language to express the programmed actions of non-player characters and the
game environment. Languages of this sort are designed for a single application; and,
while they may superficially resemble a specific general-purpose language (e.g. QuakeC,
modeled after C), they have custom features that distinguish them. Emacs Lisp, while a
fully formed and capable dialect of Lisp, contains many special features that make it most
useful for extending the editing functions of Emacs. An application-specific scripting
language can be viewed as a domain-specific programming language specialized to a
single application.

Web browsers

Main article: Client-side scripting

Web browsers are applications for displaying web pages. A host of special-purpose
languages has developed to control their operation. These include JavaScript, a scripting
language superficially resembling Java; VBScript by Microsoft, which only works in
Internet Explorer; XUL by the Mozilla project, which only works in Firefox; and XSLT,
a presentation language that transforms XML content into a new form. Techniques
involving the combination of XML and JavaScript scripting to improve the user's
impression of responsiveness have become significant enough to acquire a name: AJAX.

Web servers

Main article: Server-side scripting

On the server side of the HTTP link, application servers and other dynamic content
servers such as Web content management systems provide content through a large variety
of techniques and technologies typified by the scripting approach. Particularly prominent
in this area are PHP, JSP and ASP, but other developments such as Ruby on Rails have
carved out a niche.

Text processing languages

The processing of text-based records is one of the oldest uses of scripting languages.
Scripts written for the Unix tools AWK, sed, and grep automate tasks that involve text-
based configuration and log files. Of high importance here is the regular expression, a
language developed for the formal description of the lexical structure of text, and used by
all of these tools.
Perl was originally designed to overcome limitations of these tools and has grown to be
one of the most widespread general purpose languages.

General-purpose dynamic languages

See also: Dynamic programming language

Some languages, such as Perl, began as scripting languages but were developed into
programming languages suitable for broader purposes. Other similar languages –
frequently interpreted, memory-managed, or dynamic – have been described as "scripting
languages" for these similarities, even if they are more commonly used for applications
programming. They are usually not called "scripting languages" by their own users.

Extension/embeddable languages

A number of languages have been designed for the purpose of replacing application-
specific scripting languages by being embeddable in application programs. The
application programmer (working in C or another systems language) includes "hooks"
where the scripting language can control the application. These languages serve the same
purpose as application-specific extension languages but with the advantage of allowing
some transfer of skills from application to application. JavaScript began as and primarily
still is a language for scripting inside web browsers; however, the standardization of the
language as ECMAScript has made it popular as a general purpose embeddable language.
In particular, the Mozilla implementation SpiderMonkey is embedded in several
environments such as the Yahoo! Widget Engine. Other applications embedding
ECMAScript implementations include the Adobe products Adobe Flash (ActionScript)
and Adobe Acrobat (for scripting PDF files).

Tcl was created as an extension language but has come to be used more frequently as a
general purpose language in roles similar to Python, Perl, and Ruby.

Market analysis
The most popular scripting language, as of 2008, is JavaScript. The second most popular
is PHP. Perl is the third most popular scripting language, but in North America it enjoys
significantly more popularity
What is Protocol.

rules determining the format and transmission of data

On the Internet, there are the TCP/IP protocols, consisting of:

• Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which uses a set of rules to exchange

messages with other Internet points at the information packet level
• Internet Protocol (IP), which uses a set of rules to send and receive messages at
the Internet address level

TCP

- TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is a set of rules (protocol) used along

with the Internet Protocol (IP) to send data in the form of message units between
computers over the Internet. While IP takes care of handling the actual delivery of the
data, TCP takes care of keeping track of the individual units of data (called packets) that
a message is divided into for efficient routing through the Internet.

For example, when an HTML file is sent to you from a Web server, the Transmission
Control Protocol (TCP) program layer in that server divides the file into one or more
packets, numbers the packets, and then forwards them individually to the IP program
layer. Although each packet has the same destination IP address, it may get routed
differently through the network. At the other end (the client program in your computer),
TCP reassembles the individual packets and waits until they have arrived to forward them
to you as a single file.

TCP is known as a connection-oriented protocol, which means that a connection is

established and maintained until such time as the message or messages to be exchanged
by the application programs at each end have been exchanged. TCP is responsible for
ensuring that a message is divided into the packets that IP manages and for reassembling
the packets back into the complete message at the other end. In the Open Systems
Interconnection (OSI) communication model, TCP is in layer 4, the Transport Layer.

Internet Protocol

- The Internet Protocol (IP) is the method or protocol by which data is sent
from one computer to another on the Internet. Each computer (known as a host) on the
Internet has at least one IP address that uniquely identifies it from all other computers on
the Internet. When you send or receive data (for example, an e-mail note or a Web page),
the message gets divided into little chunks called packets. Each of these packets contains
both the sender's Internet address and the receiver's address. Any packet is sent first to a
gateway computer that understands a small part of the Internet. The gateway computer
reads the destination address and forwards the packet to an adjacent gateway that in turn
reads the destination address and so forth across the Internet until one gateway recognizes
the packet as belonging to a computer within its immediate neighborhood or domain.
That gateway then forwards the packet directly to the computer whose address is
specified.

Because a message is divided into a number of packets, each packet can, if necessary, be
sent by a different route across the Internet. Packets can arrive in a different order than
the order they were sent in. The Internet Protocol just delivers them. It's up to another
protocol, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to put them back in the right order.

IP is a connectionless protocol, which means that there is no continuing connection

between the end points that are communicating. Each packet that travels through the
Internet is treated as an independent unit of data without any relation to any other unit of
data. (The reason the packets do get put in the right order is because of TCP, the
connection-oriented protocol that keeps track of the packet sequence in a message.) In the
Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) communication model, IP is in layer 3, the
Networking Layer.

The most widely used version of IP today is Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4). However,
IP Version 6 (IPv6) is also beginning to be supported. IPv6 provides for much longer
addresses and therefore for the possibility of many more Internet users. IPv6 includes the
capabilities of IPv4 and any server that can support IPv6 packets can also support IPv4
packets

HTTP

- HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the set of rules for transferring files
(text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the World Wide Web.
As soon as a Web user opens their Web browser, the user is indirectly making use of
HTTP. HTTP is an application protocol that runs on top of the TCP/IP suite of protocols
(the foundation protocols for the Internet).

HTTP concepts include (as the Hypertext part of the name implies) the idea that files can
contain references to other files whose selection will elicit additional transfer requests.
Any Web server machine contains, in addition to the Web page files it can serve, an
HTTP daemon, a program that is designed to wait for HTTP requests and handle them
when they arrive. Your Web browser is an HTTP client, sending requests to server
machines. When the browser user enters file requests by either "opening" a Web file
(typing in a Uniform Resource Locator or URL) or clicking on a hypertext link, the
browser builds an HTTP request and sends it to the Internet Protocol address (IP address)
indicated by the URL. The HTTP daemon in the destination server machine receives the
request and sends back the requested file or files associated with the request. (A Web
page often consists of more than one file.)

File Transfer Protocol

- File Transfer Protocol (FTP), a standard Internet protocol, is the simplest
way to exchange files between computers on the Internet. Like the Hypertext Transfer
Protocol (HTTP), which transfers displayable Web pages and related files, and the
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), which transfers e-mail, FTP is an application
protocol that uses the Internet's TCP/IP protocols. FTP is commonly used to transfer Web
page files from their creator to the computer that acts as their server for everyone on the
Internet. It's also commonly used to download programs and other files to your computer
from other servers.

As a user, you can use FTP with a simple command line interface (for example, from the
Windows MS-DOS Prompt window) or with a commercial program that offers a
graphical user interface. Your Web browser can also make FTP requests to download
programs you select from a Web page. Using FTP, you can also update (delete, rename,
move, and copy) files at a server. You need to logon to an FTP server. However, publicly
available files are easily accessed using anonymous FTP.

Basic FTP support is usually provided as part of a suite of programs that come with
TCP/IP. However, any FTP client program with a graphical user interface usually must
be downloaded from the company that makes it.

There are many other Internet protocols, such as the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and
the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

SMTP

- SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a TCP/IP protocol used in sending

and receiving e-mail. However, since it is limited in its ability to queue messages at the
receiving end, it is usually used with one of two other protocols, POP3 or IMAP, that let
the user save messages in a server mailbox and download them periodically from the
server. In other words, users typically use a program that uses SMTP for sending e-mail
and either POP3 or IMAP for receiving e-mail. On Unix-based systems, sendmail is the
most widely-used SMTP server for e-mail. A commercial package, Sendmail, includes a
POP3 server. Microsoft Exchange includes an SMTP server and can also be set up to
include POP3 support.

SMTP usually is implemented to operate over Internet port 25. An alternative to SMTP
that is widely used in Europe is X.400. Many mail servers now support Extended Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol (ESMTP), which allows multimedia files to be delivered as e-
mail.

POP3

- POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) is the most recent version of a standard

protocol for receiving e-mail. POP3 is a client/server protocol in which e-mail is received
and held for you by your Internet server. Periodically, you (or your client e-mail receiver)
check your mail-box on the server and download any mail, probably using POP3. This
standard protocol is built into most popular e-mail products, such as Eudora and Outlook
Express. It's also built into the Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers.

POP3 is designed to delete mail on the server as soon as the user has downloaded it.
However, some implementations allow users or an administrator to specify that mail be
saved for some period of time. POP can be thought of as a "store-and-forward" service.

An alternative protocol is Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP). IMAP provides the
user more capabilities for retaining e-mail on the server and for organizing it in folders on
the server. IMAP can be thought of as a remote file server.

POP and IMAP deal with the receiving of e-mail and are not to be confused with the
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), a protocol for transferring e-mail across the
Internet. You send e-mail with SMTP and a mail handler receives it on your recipient's
behalf. Then the mail is read using POP or IMAP.

The conventional port number for POP3 is 110.

TCP/IP

- What is TCP/IP? TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet

Protocol) is the basic communication language or protocol of the Internet. It can also be
used as a communications protocol in a private network (either an intranet or an
extranet). When you are set up with direct access to the Internet, your computer is
provided with a copy of the TCP/IP program just as every other computer that you may
send messages to or get information from also has a copy of TCP/IP.

TCP/IP is a two-layer program. The higher layer, Transmission Control Protocol,

manages the assembling of a message or file into smaller packets that are transmitted
over the Internet and received by a TCP layer that reassembles the packets into the
original message. The lower layer, Internet Protocol, handles the address part of each
packet so that it gets to the right destination. Each gateway computer on the network
checks this address to see where to forward the message. Even though some packets from
the same message are routed differently than others, they'll be reassembled at the
destination.

TCP/IP uses the client/server model of communication in which a computer user (a

client) requests and is provided a service (such as sending a Web page) by another
computer (a server) in the network. TCP/IP communication is primarily point-to-point,
meaning each communication is from one point (or host computer) in the network to
another point or host computer. TCP/IP and the higher-level applications that use it are
collectively said to be "stateless" because each client request is considered a new request
unrelated to any previous one (unlike ordinary phone conversations that require a
dedicated connection for the call duration). Being stateless frees network paths so that
everyone can use them continuously. (Note that the TCP layer itself is not stateless as far
as any one message is concerned. Its connection remains in place until all packets in a
message have been received.)

Many Internet users are familiar with the even higher layer application protocols that use
TCP/IP to get to the Internet. These include the World Wide Web's Hypertext Transfer
Protocol (HTTP), the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Telnet (Telnet) which lets you logon
to remote computers, and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). These and other
protocols are often packaged together with TCP/IP as a "suite."

Personal computer users with an analog phone modem connection to the Internet usually
get to the Internet through the Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) or the Point-to-Point
Protocol (PPP). These protocols encapsulate the IP packets so that they can be sent over
the dial-up phone connection to an access provider's modem.

Protocols related to TCP/IP include the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which is used
instead of TCP for special purposes. Other protocols are used by network host computers
for exchanging router information. These include the Internet Control Message Protocol
(ICMP), the Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP), the Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP), and
the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).