If you need a small yet fast embeddable scripting language engine, check
out Lua. Lua 5 now has a formidable array of tools and libraries you
can choose from and there is also a Lua wiki.
Lua syntax is slightly funky but similar to Python. Yes, it handles COM
just fine so you can use it inside an ATL/WTL module (i.e. IE or shell extensions)
to easily manipulate COM objects without writing a lot of duplicate code one has to
write when using COM. LuaPlus is a variation
worth looking at also.