Dwight Watt - Newspaper Article #291 4/29/2015


Question: What are scripting languages?

Answer:

Scripting languages are computer languages to write code for programs to do extra abilities.

Some of the more popular scripting languages are JavaScript, PHP and Python. Each of these languages have abilities to add features to web pages and other computer programs.

Scripting languages are languages that work inside another programming language, with the outer language usually being HTML or Hypertext Markup Language that web pages are usually developed in.

PHP is used often to work with databases where you have stored lots of information in a special file system that is organized called a database. Common databases are SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL and Access. I use PHP in web pages I have written for realty firms to maintain and display their listings.

JavaScript is often used to get additional techniques on a web page such as animation, cookie control, nicer image displays, better menus etc. I have used JavaScript to do some of these items, although much of theses can be done directly in the latest version of HTML, which is HTML5.

Basically you need to first know basic HTML and then learning a scripting language enhances your abilities and how your web pages can work.