Scripting: The connect-and-customize solution Connect and customize: that is how IT solutions are made. Successful solutions involve scripting, which is the glue to connect and customize. Popularity: When system and script languages are both offered, the script language is almost always the one that gets the most use and provides the most solutions. Browser Example: 91% of client-side web programming is scripting Netscape offered Java (system-language) with much fanfare and expense long before offering JavaScript (script-language) with almost no publicity or hype. Almost immediately use of JavaScript was ten times higher than use of Java. That ratio has been maintained. Currently 91% JavaScript vs 9% Java. See chart for details. Server Example: Most CGI is done through scripting Any tool can be used to handle dynamic web page interaction through the web server CGI interface. That is almost always through scripting (usually through Perl). Bad Example: Macro viruses dominate ComputerWorld states that since the recent enhancements of many application with macros (a form of scripting), 80% of transmitted viruses are now macro viruses. Even virus writers are more productive with scripting. Scripting is now recognized as the fastest, simplest, and most-flexible method to create IT programming solutions. Whether by linking components -- ActiveX, JavaBeans, Applications (thin, fat, new, or legacy), Libraries, Databases, HTML, and Servers --, allowing off-the-shelf applications to be customized, or automating workflow procedures, scripting has proven itself to be the way to build total solutions for the present and the future. Nowhere have the advantages of combining thin components via scripting been more apparent than on the Internet. Companies need to automate the development of interactive features and create dynamic web sites that promote heavy traffic and repeat visitors. These sites must link with existing legacy systems, link older paradigms with the new Internet protocols, and even interact with the user’s own system. Scripting provides the means by which corporations can achieve such results with simplicity and ease. For example, see Nombas' ScriptEase:WebServer Edition Arcade.