Re: How does Perl get to executable code?

If you are new to perl, this is a sort of question that'll give you a load of answers that don't make a lot of sense. However, I might offer perlguts illustrated for what's going on behind the scenes. Also possibly the perlcompile documentation page

It does end up as machine code - as does everything that ever runs on your system. But very few people work in machine code any more, because it's low level and hard work and gives very little net benefit outside of some very specific niche applications.

Practically speaking though - it is unlikely that you will need to be digging this deep with perl - the whole point of it is that it's sufficiently high level that you don't need to care about (most) implementation specific details.

Comment on Re: How does Perl get to executable code?

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Re^2: How does Perl get to executable code? by GrandFather (Saint) on Nov 11, 2015 at 00:11 UTC
It does end up as machine code Um, no it doesn't. It ends up as bytecode which is then interpreted. However, understanding the process somewhat is helpful in diagnosing some script failure modes and in understanding the role that BEGIN and friends play. A related area is understanding how modules are loaded, which also has traps for heffalumps near the edges of the envelope. Premature optimization is the root of all job security	[reply]

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Re^2: How does Perl get to executable code?
by GrandFather (Saint) on Nov 11, 2015 at 00:11 UTC

It does end up as machine code

Um, no it doesn't. It ends up as bytecode which is then interpreted.

However, understanding the process somewhat is helpful in diagnosing some script failure modes and in understanding the role that BEGIN and friends play. A related area is understanding how modules are loaded, which also has traps for heffalumps near the edges of the envelope.

Premature optimization is the root of all job security

[reply]