Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Compiled language
A compiled language is a vague term referring to a language whose implementations are typically compilers (translators which generate machine code from source code), and not interpreters (step-by-step executors of source code, where no translation takes place).
In principle any language can be implemented with a compiler or with an interpreter. A combination of both solutions is also increasingly common: a compiler can translate the source code into some intermediate form (often called bytecode), which is then passed to an interpreter which executes it.
A program P translated by a compiler is often much faster than an interpreter executing the same program P: even a 10:1 ratio is not uncommon. The mixed solution's efficiency is typically somewhere in between. The downside of the "compiler" solution is the inherent complexity of a good implementation.
A pure compiler implementation is the typical solution for low-level languages, because it comes out as more "natural", and because of efficiency concerns; however with some effort it is always possible to write compilers even for traditionally interpreted languages such as Lisp and Prolog.
Some languages that are commonly considered to be compiled:
- Fortran
- The family of C programming language, including C++ and Objective C but not Java
- Ada, Pascal, and Delphi
- Algol programming language, including Algol 60 and Algol 68
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