Re^3: perl language

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Re^4: perl language by salva (Canon) on Nov 12, 2007 at 15:45 UTC
C also is compiled to bytecode This is very unusual, most C compilers generate machine code for the target processor architecture. But then why c is called a compiled language and perl an interpreted language.. Maybe because Perl looks like an interpreted language. The division between interpreted and compiled languages is an old one that is not meaningful anymore. Being an interpreter or a compiler is not a characteristic of the language but of the implementation and not everything has to be a compiler or an interpreter. perl (or Perl, as only an implementation exists) is something in the middle, an hybrid: there is an on-the-fly compilation stage, where the program is parsed and compiled into an internal data structure, and then a second stage where this data structure is interpreted.	[reply]

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Re^4: perl language
by salva (Canon) on Nov 12, 2007 at 15:45 UTC

C also is compiled to bytecode

This is very unusual, most C compilers generate machine code for the target processor architecture.

But then why c is called a compiled language and perl an interpreted language..

Maybe because Perl looks like an interpreted language.

The division between interpreted and compiled languages is an old one that is not meaningful anymore. Being an interpreter or a compiler is not a characteristic of the language but of the implementation and not everything has to be a compiler or an interpreter.

perl (or Perl, as only an implementation exists) is something in the middle, an hybrid: there is an on-the-fly compilation stage, where the program is parsed and compiled into an internal data structure, and then a second stage where this data structure is interpreted.

[reply]