The Task of an Interpreter

• The task of an interpreter is to map programs written in a given source language into an internal representation and then to execute the internal representation.
• Some languages (LISP, SCHEME, BASIC, Smalltalk, PROLOG) are mostly interpreted.
• Some languages (Java, Pascal, PROLOG) are compiled into abstract machine code , which is then interpreted by a virtual machine .
• Advantage of compilation:
  • execution speed
• Advantage of interpretation:
  • quick turn-around
  • portability