Is Python really a scripting language?

[Piet van Oostrum]

>>>>> Steven D'Aprano <steve at REMOVE-THIS-cybersource.com.au> (SD) wrote:

>SD> I have repeatedly argued in the past that we do ourselves a disservice by 
>SD> describing Python as an interpreted language. Python is compiled. It has 
>SD> a compiler. It even has a built-in function "compile". It's just not 
>SD> compiled to *machine code* -- but with even machine code often running on 
>SD> a virtual machine in the CPU(s), the distinction is far less important 
>SD> now than it was when Sun described Java as a compiled language despite 
>SD> the lack of JIT compilers.

The above is not a description of the language but of an implementation.
Albeit the currently major implementation. But it could be that in the
future python would be compiled to machine code. That wouldn't change the
language. 
-- 
Piet van Oostrum <piet at cs.uu.nl>
URL: http://www.cs.uu.nl/~piet [PGP 8DAE142BE17999C4]
Private email: piet at vanoostrum.org