I know the term "scripting languages" is just a subset of programming languages, but I want to refer to programming languages such as Python and Ruby among others.
First of all, why don't we need a compiler for these languages? For example, IDEs like Visual Studio or Eclipse have their own compiler in order to translate the code and execute the program. What does it mean for a programming language to be interpreted and how are they (Python, Ruby) compiled before execution in the terminal without a compiler?
Also, when we install Python or Ruby in our computers before we start coding, what are we actually installing? packages? files? something that lets our computer understand the language?
BEGIN
block). The line between compilers and interpreters is very fuzzy now. IMHO: its best to forget about 'scripting' languages. They are languages. That's it.