Active Scripting

Active Scripting (formerly known as ActiveX Scripting) is the technology used in Windows to implement component-based scripting support. It is based on OLE Automation (part of COM) and allows installation of additional scripting engines in the form of COM modules. The Active Scripting technologies were first released in 1996, with the release of the Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 (August 1996) and Internet Information Services 3.0 products (December 1996). Usual applications of Active Scripting include Active Server Pages (ASP) server scripts, Internet Explorer, and Windows Script Host (WSH) scripts automating routine tasks, including use for login scripts, Registry manipulation, and the like. Other administrative uses include Windows Management Instrumentation and Active Directory Service Interfaces. Active Scripting can also be used for general-purpose tasks such as database programming, text processing, rapid prototyping, and application macro or scripting programming. Some applications use Active Scripting as their primary automation method, while others do not have a macro facility but make the components available for use via the API; or one may opt to add a language and/or tool not available by default, like programming Microsoft Excel in Perl or REXX rather than Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) or transferring data from a terminal emulator to word processor by way of a spreadsheet when they have dissimilar macro tools or none at all. For many of the above uses, Active Scripting is an addition to Windows that is similar to the functionality of Unix shell scripts, as well as an incremental improvement upon batch files (command.com), Windows NT style shell scripts (cmd.exe) and, by way of VBScript, the replacement for QBasic, which was last available on the supplementary disc for Windows 95. The majority of the languages used for Active Scripting mentioned below are glue languages, with Perl being the most commonly used third-party script engine. The interfaces to Active Scripting engines are public, so any developer can create applications that are programmable in Active Scripting languages as well as engines for additional languages.