What is Interpreted Language?

As we all use a language to communicate with each other. But a machine does not understand the language we speak. Instead, it understands the only binary language. So, we need a programming language to communicate with the machines. We write code or instruction in a high-level language, and we want our source code to be converted into machine language somehow. There are two methods of converting a high-level source code into machine language: compiling the source code and interpreting the source code.

Interpreted Language

Interpreted languages are those programming languages that use software called interpreters to convert the high-level source code into machine language. An interpreter does not convert the source code into an executable file as a compiler does. Instead, it reads the code line by line and executes it at the time of interpreting. In comparison, a compiler converts the source code into an executable file. It allows us to run that executable file in our machines without considering the program’s language in which it is written.

Python, JavaScript, Ruby, Perl, and Php are some examples of an interpreted language.

What makes an interpreted language different form a complied language?

Here is some major point that makes an interpreted language different from a compiled language, such as:

1. An interpreted language uses an interpreter, whereas a compiled language uses a compiler to convert the source into targeted machine code.
2. In an interpreted language, the source code is executed at the time of interpreting, and in the complied language, it requires two steps. First, it converts the code into an executable file suitable for the targeted machine language, and then we can run that file.
3. A complied language is faster than an interpreted language. Asboth interpreter and compiler features have many differences. Comparing the speed of compiled and interpreted languages does not make much sense.
4. In an interpreted language, we get the errors at the run time. An interpreter reports only one error at a time, making debugging easy. Whereas, in complied languages, a compiler reports all the errors present in the program when compiling, prevents the compilation, and makes the debugging a little difficult.
5. In a compiled language, the CPU can execute the executable file directly. Whereas we directly execute the code in an interpreted language line by line.
6. As we do not get the errors while executing the executable file, the performance of the compiled language is better than the interpreted language.

Steps Involve in executing a program written in a Complied Language:

Steps involved in executing a program written in an interpreted language:

Advantages of Interpreted Language

Here are the following advantages of interpreted languages, such as:

• An interpreted language is more flexible and portable when we need to test our program in the different operating systems. We directly share the code and let the other party execute the program. Whereas in compiled languages, the executable file supported by windows cannot be supported in MacOS, and we need to make another executable file supported by MacOS.
• Testing the program is much easier in interpreted languages than compiled languages, as we directly run the code and let the interpreter take care of it. There is no such pre-process of compilation before executing.
• Also, debugging is much easier in an interpreted language as we have access to all of our code, and the interpreter reports the error at run time. Here, we do not need to wait for the compiler to convert the program into an executable file and then run it to check whether the result is favorable or not.

Disadvantages of Interpreted Language

An interpreted language also has a few demerits, such as:

• Everyone who needs to run the program should have an interpreter for that language on their machine. Without having a suitable interpreter for that language and their machine, one cannot run the program.
• As we need to interpret the program every time to run it, it makes it slower than that of compiled languages as there is an executable file available to run by the CPU, making it faster.

And we need to share the code with everyone to run the program on their machine, making it effectively public. And in a compiled language, we do not need to share the source code with anyone, and we can only share the executable file of that program, making our source code private and safe.