interpriter

An interpriter is a program that directly executes instructions written in a programming language, without having them previously compiled into a machine language program. Interpreters can be classified as either a source-code interpreter, a bytecode interpreter, or a combination of the two. Source-code interpreters execute source code directly. Bytecode interpreters execute intermediate code, which is a lower-level, platform-independent representation of the source code.

The process of interpretation typically involves reading the source code line by line, analyzing each instruction, and then performing the action associated with that instruction. This is in contrast to compilers, which translate the entire program into machine code before execution. Interpreters are often used for scripting languages, dynamic languages, and for debugging purposes because they allow for faster development cycles and easier error detection.

Advantages of using an interpreter include portability, as the same interpreted code can run on any machine with a compatible interpreter installed, and ease of development, as changes can be tested immediately without a compilation step. However, interpreters generally execute code more slowly than compiled programs because the interpretation process happens at runtime. Popular examples of interpreted languages include Python, JavaScript, and Ruby. Some languages, like Java, use a hybrid approach, compiling source code into bytecode which is then interpreted by a virtual machine.