From the Wikipedia defination,
Programming language is
Scripting languages are languages that allow you to send commands directly to a system that executes these commands. These commands are read line by line and executed-interpreted, but not compiled.
Whilst, Scripting language is
Programming languages are languages that allow you to create a program by writing structured code that is read all at once by the system, checked for errors, and translated into an unreadable format that the machine can then execute(compiled).
ActionScript is now quite developed language(Which runs after compilation not interpreted) and after ActionScript 3,Flex and Air, Its hard to believe ActionScript is still dubbed as Scripting language.
The line between a programming language and a scripting language is blurry. Once upon a time, a “programming language” was a compiled language like C or C++, because only those languages were really efficient enough to write non-trivial programs in. Scripting languages were languages that were typically not compiled and thus slower; their relative inefficiency relegated them to systems maintenance tasks or “gluing” parts of a compiled program together. Now, computers are getting faster and language interpreters are getting more advanced, so even a traditional “scripting” language like Python or Tcl can be used to write a full-fledged application. However, once a language is dubbed a scripting language, it’s hard to shirk off the title.