the original definition is likely tossing shell commands in a file to run later. chaining commands together. since perl and python supplanted this, they get lumped in as 'scripting languages'. both certainly can be used to write long running systems or short one off tasks.
compiled languages are rarely used for one offs because the effort they require is usually greater than the task calls for.
a big part of perl/python use is in tying together libraries written in more difficult lower level compiled languages.
you'll also see scripting used to refer to languages embedded in larger projects. lua scripts to control entities in a game, for instance. do they compile these somehow? I never did in the little project I used lua for.
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all of that together, I expect that scripting as a concept largely boils down to conceptually simpler languages with less view of the ugly underbelly of how things actually work in a computer, used to chain together abstractions created by lower level code.
scripting is duct-tape. whether you duct-tape together a one-off task or some wad of long running functionality is besides the point.
> you'll also see scripting used to refer to languages embedded in larger projects.
Yes, but this is conceptually exactly the same as the aforementioned shell scenario. This is not something different.
Just as I suspected, there is only one definition, and one that has proven to actually be well defined to boot as you managed to reiterate the only definition I have ever known to perfection.
