Script vs. Simple Application

I find myself in the habit of saying that I will write a "script" as opposed to an "application" or a "program." I suppose that my habit of saying "script" has roots in procedural language design. Although I still have a habit of saying "script" even if I write an OO application.

Perhaps I unconsciously use the word "script" when I actually mean "simple application" because I want to convey to others that the task will be simple to perform - because I'm leveraging the power of Perl and the CPAN - and will be done quickly.

Perhaps I'm unconsciously thinking that it is risky to say "application" around people who like to over-implement projects (too much planning and hiring of consultants.) On the other hand, it is risky to say "script" around those same people once the development is underway - because they want to be assured that it is being well designed.

Nevertheless, I think that I will try to avoid using the word "script" in most situations.

3 Comments

Agreed. I read similar posts several years ago, and started calling everything a program, regardless of how simple it is at the moment. There's no good reason to call it a script, unless you're talking about a play. ;-)

I think that coming from bash/sysadmin land, is easy to acquire that habit... I've it too. Thinking about... from now on, I'm going to try to avoid calling scripts to source code of applications that solves one or more problems. :-)

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About Jesse Thompson

user-pic I blog about Perl.