December 2021
Beginner
840 pages
47h 29m
English
An interpreter, given the program input, traverses the abstract-syntax tree to evaluate and directly execute the program (see the right side of Figure 4.1 labeled “Interpreter”). There is no translation to object/bytecode involved in interpretation. “The interpreter for a computer language is just another program” (Friedman, Wand, and Haynes 2001, p. xi, Foreword, Hal Abelson). This observation is described as the most fundamental idea in computer programming (Friedman, Wand, and Haynes 2001). The input to an interpreter is (1) the source program to be executed and (2) the input of that source program. We say the input of the interpreter is the source program because to the programmer of the source program, ...
Read now
Unlock full access