[Haskell-cafe] Re: "Haskell is a scripting language inspiredby Python."

[Richard O'Keefe]

On 5/11/2010, at 1:00 PM, Donn Cave wrote:
> I don't care about whether Python had any influence, but I'd sure
> like to stamp out the "scripting language" rumor.

In this case it may be the Haskell community to blame.
Google for Haskell script
and you will find, for example, "Learn you a Haskell for Great Good!"
where the introduction page says
"GHC can take a Haskell script (they usually have a .hs extension)
and compile it".
That author is not alone in habitually calling .hs files "scripts".
I remember trying to get a certain academic to call Haskell
programs *programs*, but he insisted that "scripts" was the only
right word.

That Google search finds plenty of other sites using the same
terminology.  I think I even found it in a book once.  And need
I remind you that www.haskell.org/cabal/proposal/x444.html
calls Setup.lhs "the setup *script*"?

> I suppose the confusion may begin with system scripting languages,
> like the UNIX shell or REXX, where the parallel between an OS and
> an application may not be as obvious 

In fact the Korn shell *is* an application scripting language.
The debugger in Solaris uses ksh as a scripting language, and AT&T
used it for many other things.