The usual way to add scripting to a Unix application is to embed a scripting language in the application, or to embed the application in a scripting language. The alternative is to provide some form of interprocess communications facility that can be used to control the application, or objects in the application. This paper starts with why applications allow scripting and what scripting languages are. It then discusses the advantages of the interprocess communications method and the state of facilities for doing this on UNIX. It finishes with the examination of an application that has had such extensions added.
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