Compilation or interpretation
Walter H. Burkhardt · Proceedings of the 17th conference on ACM Annual Computer Science Conference · 1989
Processing programs written in languages of higher-level requires the steps of compilation and execution or interpretation for obtaining results. Both steps are considered to be different methods [1,2]. The only difference, however, is in fact the access by the processor, as compiler or as interpreter, to the object code equivalents. The code produced by a compiler processes the object code sequences in macro form, but the interpreter accesses the code sequences for the same language constructs as procedures or subroutines. Both methods of processing are, therefore, essentially equivalent. Their application potential differs consideraly, as interpretation of programs in a language of higher level is preferred during the debugging stage in the development of programs and in trial runs, especially in interactive mode. Compilation with optional optimization is favored for the production runs. The inclusion of switches into a language processor at appropriate places permits the processor to function as a compiler or as an interpreter at the command by the user.