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Ousterhout's Dichotomy

dichotomy Ousterhout's dichotomy is computer scientist John Ousterhout's categorization[1] that high-level programming languages tend to fall into two groups, each with distinct properties and uses: system programming languages and scripting languages – compare programming in the large and programming in the small. System programming languages (or applications languages) usually have the following properties: - They are typed statically - They support creating complex data structures - Programs in them are compiled into machine code - Programs in them are meant to operate largely independently of other programs System programming languages tend to be used for components and applications with large amounts of internal functionality such as operating systems, database servers, and Web browsers.

Ousterhout claims that scripts tend to be short and are often written by less sophisticated programmers, so execution efficiency is less important than simplicity and ease of interaction with other programs. Prototypical examples of scripting languages include Python, AppleScript, C shell, DOSbatch files, and Tcl. This is the proposition that you should use *two* languages for a large software system: one, such as C or C++, for manipulating the complex internal data structures where performance is key, and another, such as Tcl, for writing small-ish scripts that tie together the C pieces and are used for extensions.

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