One traditional use of scripting is for customizing applications. Users add functions to meet special needs or to increase productivity. Users customize the editor by writing REXX procedures that they can run as editor macros. Another use of scripting is to combine several scriptable applications into a single composite application. For example, you can use a composite application to retrieve data from a spreadsheet and then manipulate that data with an editor to generate a file containing a report.
Composite applications are powerful tools for creative problem solving.
But composite applications can be written only if the applications managing the needed data are scriptable. Consider, for example, how scripting could help decision makers who rely on information from online sources. Often the decision maker must access several sources. Each source has an application with a unique interface, and most are designed with the assumption that a person will operate the interface manually. Unfortunately for decision makers, as the number of sources increases, so does the time and work needed to get the information.