Hello,

I'm writing a paper about the Computer programming industry and I have a few questions that I have been having trouble trying to get answered.

What is the difference between programming and scripting?


What types of job positions are computer programmers needed for, Other than the obvious software development types?

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>What is the difference between programming and scripting?
Scripting is generally thought of as application extension that cannot run without the aid of a hosting application. Shell scripts, for example, can't run without the aid of the shell, but they're not a component of the shell. Programming on the other hand is the development of independent applications that can run without any aid at all, or no more than the aid of the operating system. The shell itself is an example as it runs directly on top of the OS.

>What types of job positions are computer programmers needed
>for, Other than the obvious software development types?
Just about any job where you might be asked to customize a computer system.

>>What types of job positions are computer programmers needed for, Other than the obvious software development types?

I've had programming jobs at banks, accounting, manufacturing plants, government, and military. The most interesting ones to me were at the manufacturing plants, such as donuts, paper mills, tooth brushes, and jellybeans, just to mention a few. All those factories needed programmers to customize the computer software on assembly lines.

most of my experience is in manufacturing. i second AD's comment about being the "most interesting". we get to write programs that directly control hardware and physical equipment such as automation and robotics.... sometimes very heavy duty stuff like cranes and motor drives, sometimes very precise measurement and assembly equipment.

i am quite sure that working somewhere purely data/number crunching like a bank would bore the living crap out of me.

game programming might be fun for a moment, but even then i really think i would miss the hardware/equipment interfacing.

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There are also a lot of jobs that are related to computer programming, that you might not think of if you are focusing strictly on coding. Some people here who are in industry might be able to give more examples, but here are some topics to look into:

Software configuration management
CMMI
Testing
Software Design (& User Centered design)

>>What types of job positions are computer programmers needed for, Other than the obvious software development types?

I've had programming jobs at banks, accounting, manufacturing plants, government, and military. The most interesting ones to me were at the manufacturing plants, such as donuts, paper mills, tooth brushes, and jellybeans, just to mention a few. All those factories needed programmers to customize the computer software on assembly lines.

Sounds really interesting :D I dont want to send this thread ofcourse but stuff did you do in the military, if ur allowed to talk about it that is, I think it would be cool doing stuff for the military...programming UAVs etc.

>What is the difference between programming and scripting?
Scripting is generally thought of as application extension that cannot run without the aid of a hosting application. Shell scripts, for example, can't run without the aid of the shell, but they're not a component of the shell. Programming on the other hand is the development of independent applications that can run without any aid at all, or no more than the aid of the operating system. The shell itself is an example as it runs directly on top of the OS.

I'd suggest the general perception - though not explicitly sound in all situations - is that the difference between a programming language and scripting language is that the former is compiled prior to execution (be that to native or intermediate form) where the latter is interpreted from source-code form at runtime.
Programming languages such as Java and managed .Net languages require the aid of a system - virtual machine - to run much like scripting languages like bash, pearl, etc...yet unlike those scripting languages they are compiled to a non-source code form before this step.

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