Interpreters and Immediate Execution

by: David Harel

There  is  another way computers  can execute  the programs they are presented  with, 

which   does   not   involve   translating   the   entire   program   into   a   lower­level   language. 
Rather, each of the program’s high­level statements is translated into machine­Level 
instructions   immediately   on   being   encountered,   and   these   in   turn   are   promptly 
Executed. In a sense, the computer is playing the role of the robot or processor Directly, 
running   around   and   actually   carrying   out   the   high­level   instructions   one   by   one 
precisely   as   given.   The   mechanism   responsible   for   this   local­translation­And­
immediate­execution is also a piece of system software, usually called an Interpreter. 
The interpreter approach has certain obvious advantages, among which are: it is usually 
easier to write a “quick­and­dirty,” but reasonably useful, interpreter, Than it is to write 
a reasonable compiler;  interpreter­driven execution yields amore traceable account of 
what is happening, especially when working interactively with the computer  through a 
terminal   with   a   display   screen.   There   are,   however,   several   disadvantages   of 
interpretation over compilation, which will be briefly touched upon in later chapters. 
Whether a particular computer will compile or interpret a given program depends on the 
computer at hand, the programming  language, and the particular package of system 
software in use. Nevertheless, while some programming languages lend themselves to 
interpretation more easily than others, all languages can, in principle, be compiled.

Reference: Algorithmics spirit of computing

Date: 02­09­2008