COMPUTER

IMPLEMENTATION

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
IMPLEMENTATION
 Programming Language
Implementation
 The software that provides the high
level language interface to a computer
is called language implementation
system.
 Also required is a large connection of
programs called operating system.
 A programming language
implementation is a system for
executing programs written in a
programming language.
In computer science,
 an implementation is a realization of a
technical specification or algorithm as a
program, software component, or other
computer system. Many
implementations may exist for a given
specification or standard. For example,
web browsers contain implementations
of World Wide Web Consortium-
recommended specifications, and
software development tools contain
implementations of
programming languages.
Methods of Implementing
Programming Language
There are two general approaches to
programming language
implementation:
 Interpretation: An interpreter
takes as input a program in some
language, and performs the
actions written in that language on
some machine.
 Compilation: A compiler takes as
input a program in some language,
and translates that program into
some other language, which may
serve as input to another
Compilation and
Interpretation
 Notice that a compiler does not directly
execute the program. Ultimately, in
order to execute a program via
compilation, it must be translated into a
form that can serve as input to an
interpreter.
 When a piece of computer hardware
can interpret a programming language
directly, that language is called machine
code. A so-called native code compiler
is one that compiles a program into
machine code.
 Compilation and
Interpretation:
A Comparison
 A static property of a program is
property that is evident from the
program text.
 A dynamic property is evident
upon running the program.
Compilation
 Compilation can be more efficient
than interpretation. Compilation
can be an order of magnitude
faster than interpretation for the
same programming language.
Interpretation
 An interpreter directly runs the
source program, so it can allow
programs to be changed “on the
fly” to add features or correct
errors. Furthermore, an interpreter
works with the source text, so it
can pinpoint an error in the source
text and report it accurately.