Program, Application, and Software

[Alexander Kapps]

On 19.11.2010 01:26, MRAB wrote:
> On 19/11/2010 00:07, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>> On Thu, 18 Nov 2010 14:21:47 +0000, Martin Gregorie wrote:
>>
>>> I use 'script' to refer to programs written in languages that don't have
>>> a separate compile phase which must be run before the program can be
>>> executed. IOW Python and Perl programs are scripts aloing with programs
>>> written as awk, Javascript and bash scripts.
>>
>> You're mistaken then about Python, because it does have a separate
>> compilation phase that runs before the program can be executed. Where do
>> you think the .pyc files come from, and what did you think the compile()
>> function did? It just happens automatically, rather than manually.
>>
> [snip]
> I think what he means is that you don't need explicitly to compile and
> then run.

What difference does it make? Is 'print "Hello"' a program or a 
script? Are you saying, that it depends on whether you have to 
manually call some compiler?