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Interpreter (computing)

Definition

In computing, an interpreter is software that executes source code without first compiling it to machine code. An interpreted runtime environment differs from one that processes CPU-native executable code which requires translating source code before executing it. An interpreter may translate the source code to an intermediate format, such as bytecode. A hybrid environment may translate the bytecode to machine code via just-in-time compilation, as in the case of .NET and Java, instead of interpreting the bytecode directly.

Related concepts

.NET ACM Computing Classification System ALGOL Abstract syntax tree Ahead-of-time compilation Algorithm Algorithm design Algorithmic efficiency Analysis of algorithms Android Runtime Application security Ars Technica Artificial intelligence Augmented reality Automata theory Automated planning and scheduling BASIC BASIC interpreter BEAM (Erlang virtual machine)Byte Bytecode C++COBOL CPU CPython C (programming language)Clang Command-line interface Common Language Runtime Communication protocol Compile and go system Compile time Compiler Compiler construction Compilers Compiling Computability theory Computational biology Computational chemistry Computational complexity Computational complexity theory Computational engineering Computational geometry Computational intelligence Computational mathematics Computational physics Computational problem Computational social science Computer accessibility Computer animation Computer architecture Computer data storage Computer graphics Computer hardware Computer network Computer program Computer programs Computer science Computer security Computer vision Computing Computing platform Concurrency (computer science)Concurrent computing Control flow Control table Control theory Cross-validation (statistics)Crt0 Cryptography Cyber-physical system Cyberwarfare Data mining Database Decision support system Dependability Digital art Digital library Digital marketing Discrete mathematics Distributed artificial intelligence Distributed computing Document management system Domain-specific language Dynamic compilation Dynamic recompilation E-commerce Educational technology Electronic design automation Electronic publishing Electronic voting Electronics Emacs Lisp Embedded system Emulator Enterprise information system Enterprise software Executable Executable code Execution (computers)Execution (computing)Fault tolerance Form factor (design)Formal language Formal methods Forth (programming language)Fortran Free On-line Dictionary of Computing GNU Compiler Collection GNU Free Documentation License Geographic information system Glasgow Haskell Compiler Graphics processing unit Green computing Hackers & Painters Hardware acceleration Hardware security Health informatics Homoiconicity Human-centered computing Human–computer interaction IBM 704 Image compression Industrial process control Information retrieval Information security Information system Information theory Integrated circuit Integrated development environment Interaction design Intermediate representation Intrusion detection system Java (programming language)Java virtual machine John McCarthy (computer scientist)Jump table Just-in-time compilation Keyword (computer programming)Knowledge representation and reasoning LLVM Lexical analysis Library (computing)Linker (computing)Lisp (programming language)Lisp programming language List of computer size categories Logic in computer science LuaJIT MATLAB Machine code Machine learning Mathematical analysis Mathematical optimization Mathematical software Meta-circular evaluator Meta-tracing Michael Franz Microcode Microsoft Visual C++Middleware Militärverlag der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik Mobile computing Model of computation Modeling language Mono (software)Multi-task learning Multimedia database Multiprocessing Multithreading (computer architecture)Natural language processing Network architecture Network performance Network scheduler Network security Network service Networking hardware Node.js Numerical analysis Object code Objective-C Open Firmware Open source Operating system Operations research Optimizing compiler Outline of computer science PBASIC Parallel computing Parser Partial evaluation Paul Graham (programmer)Peripheral Perl Philosophy of artificial intelligence Photograph manipulation Precompilation Printed circuit board Probability Processor (computing)Programming language Programming language theory Programming paradigm Programming team Programming tool PyPy Python (programming language)Quantum computing Radio-fernsehn-elektronik Raku (programming language)Randomized algorithm Read–eval–print loop Real-time computing Reinforcement learning Rendering (computer graphics)Requirements analysis Ruby (programming language)Runtime environment Runtime performance Runtime system Sandbox (computer security)Script language Security hacker Security service (telecommunication)Self-modifying code Semantics (computer science)Social computing Social software Software Software bug Software compatibility Software configuration management Software construction Software deployment Software design Software development Software development process Software engineering Software framework Software maintenance Software quality Software repository Solid modeling Source-to-source compiler Source code Statistics Steve Russell (computer scientist)Stochastic computing Supervised learning Swift (programming language)System on a chip Theoretical computer science Theory of computation Threaded code Token threading Tracing just-in-time compilation Translator (computing)Ubiquitous computing Unified Modeling Language Unsupervised learning V8 (JavaScript engine)Variable-length code Very-large-scale integration Video game Virtual machine Virtual reality Virtualization Visualization (graphics)Wireless sensor network Word processor World Wide Web Zend Engine

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