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I'd say interpreters are less complex than compilers. Even compiling down to byte code and interpreting that isn't as difficult as writing something that actual

I'd say interpreters are less complex than compilers. Even compiling down to byte code and interpreting that isn't as difficult as writing something that actually outputs optimized code that runs on bare metal. There are some very complex interpreters out there, but they have different goals than simple interpreters or optimizing compilers (see: Erlang, LuaJIT, Ruby, etc.)

sklogic 10y ago
> something that actually outputs optimized code Optimisations might be difficult (some of them, not all). Yet, a straightforward compilation is trivial, far simpler than the simplest of possible interpreters. And an unoptimised compiler is by far more simple than even an unoptimised interpreter.