Wasn't intended to be a distinction but an aside.

But as to that, it's slightly different than merely being able to play back a recording of commands. It IS that, but that can be applied in a way that acts more like the examples I said like sed or patch, or expect, where the script can apply some funcion to different inputs, not just playing back a recording. I'm not denying the implimentation, how the job gets done, is technically still just a recording of commands.