[mlyle]

To me, if something acts logically like it is run from top to bottom, it's a scripting language. Python scripts and JavaScript are in this category; Java isn't.

Additionally, explicit compilation/linking/assembly shouldn't be required for a scripting language, even if the interpreter does stuff kind of like this behind the scenes for performance.

[zepto]

That makes Ocaml and Haskel into scripting languages.

[kccqzy]

You can't just put `putStrLn "Hello"` in the top level of a Haskell program and expect it to work. You can do it in a REPL, but that's besides the point.

[zepto]

Sure. I was responding to this:

“To me, if something acts logically like it is run from top to bottom, it's a scripting language.”

I don’t see them as scripting languages, but that definition would include them.

[kccqzy]

And my point is that Haskell doesn't even look like it's run from top to bottom.

Example, consider this mutually recursive definition at the top level:

    a = 1:b
    b = 2:a

It doesn't, by any means logical or not, look like it runs from top to bottom. If so, the first line would have immediately been an error because `b` is an undefined name.

[zepto]

My mistake - I thought Haskell was like OCaml in not having a main function:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28711563/ddg#28711778

You broadly dismissed my entire comment, which was completely correct about Ocaml, but I accept that you are correct about Haskell.