Computers don't understand English or even programming languages. What's needed is translation software, and it comes in different forms: compilers, interpreters and bytecode.

Learn about the crucial differences between compilers and interpreters and how they affect code execution and development.

Writing a compiler seems like a much harder problem than an interpreter. If that is so, why was the first compiler written six years before the first interpreter?

This article provides a know how on the Interpreter pattern and how it can be implemented. The code examples are provided in C#.

The first stage was an interpreter that ran script programs without compiling them. This allows scripts to run "instantly" without having to wait for a compiler.