From PHP to Perl: Whats hot, whats not in scripting languages [Video]

Scripting languages now do ‘real’ programming, and many of them offer features you won’t find in your favorite programming language.

Credit: Dilok Klaisataporn

Scripting languages are the hot technology today for application and Web development — no longer the backwater afterthought of the early days running in a pokey interpreter. Nor are scripting languages any longer merely the tool used for quick-and-dirty patching (someone once called Perl the duct tape of the Internet, and it stuck so well that Perl lovers wear the label proudly). No, today, scripting languages are popular for “real” programming work. In fact, entire systems and large-scale enterprise-grade projects are built from them.

To confuse matters more, many so-called compiled languages are now bundled with just-in-time compilers that make them as agile as scripting languages. First, Java got Java Server Pages, allowing programmers to tweak Web pages just like PHP and Cold Fusion programmers could. Lately Java programmers have been using Groovy, a language that’s structurally integrated with Java and runs on the JVM. …