Yes, perl is an interpreter. But it does not work like the early interpreters did (read a line, interpret it, execute it, go on to the next line). What happens is, once you start the script, the code gets parsed and "compiled" into an internal parse tree, aka bytecode format.

The "anti" is the "run time". That is when the Perl interpreter is executing the bytecode.

Update:
The article FMTEYEWTK about Compilation vs Interpretation in Perl provides more detail.


holli, /regexed monk/

In reply to Re: compilation time and what else? by holli
in thread compilation time and what else? by wannabeboy

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