Shell scripting, allows you to fully utilize the shell's abilities and to automate a lot of tasks that would otherwise require a lot of commands to perform. A lot of programs lying around your Linux box are shell scripts. If you are interested in learning how they work, or in modifying them, it is essential that you understand the bash syntax and semantics. In addition, by understanding the bash language, you will be able to write your own programs to do things exactly the way you want them done. People who are new to programming are generally confused as to what the difference is between a programming and scripting language.
Programming languages are generally a lot more powerful and a lot faster than scripting languages.
This executable is not easily ported into different operating systems. For instance, if you were to write a C program in Linux, you would not be able to run that C program in a Windows 98 system. In order to do so, you would have to recompile the source code under the Windows 98 system. A scripting language also starts from source code, but is not compiled into an executable. Rather, an interpreter reads the instructions in the source file and executes each instruction.