Are scripting languages really different?

Abstract

Scripting languages such as Python, Perl, Ruby and PHP are increasingly important in new software systems as web technology becomes a dominant force. These languages are often spoken of as having different properties, in particular with respect to cloning, and the question arises whether the observations made based on traditional languages also apply to them. In this paper we present a first experiment in measuring the cloning properties of open source software systems written in the Python scripting language using the NiCad clone detector. We compare our results for Python with previous observations of C, C#, and Java, and discover that perhaps scripting languages are not so different after all.