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I always read that as the default behaviour for the language. C is usually compiled but there are exceptions. Perl (<=5) is almost always interpreted but there

I always read that as the default behaviour for the language. C is usually compiled but there are exceptions. Perl (<=5) is almost always interpreted but there are tools to turn Perl code into an executable. I agree it's a somewhat arbitrary distinction given the above but when I first learned any programming at all having it explained this way helped my understanding of how languages can differ from each other.

smitherfield 9y ago
>Perl (<=5) is almost always interpreted but there are tools to turn Perl code into an executable. IIRC those tools (of which similar ones exist for Java, Python, Ruby, Node.js, Lua and so on) just package together the sources (precompiled to bytecode) and an instance of the Perl[5] interpreter.
- sigjuice 9y ago
  Here's Java getting compiled to actual x86-64 code (mov $0x2a,%edx; add %edx,%eax). $ cat FortyTwo.java public class FortyTwo { public static int fortytwo(int x) { return x + 42; } } $ gcj-4.9 -c FortyTwo.java $ objdump -S FortyTwo.o FortyTwo.o: file format elf64-x86-64 Disassembly of section .text: <snip> 0000000000000022 <_ZN8FortyTwo8fortytwoEJii>: { public static int fortytwo(int x) { return x + 42; 22: 55 push %rbp 23: 48 89 e5 mov %rsp,%rbp 26: 48 83 ec 20 sub $0x20,%rsp 2a: 89 7d ec mov %edi,-0x14(%rbp) 2d: b8 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%eax 32: 48 89 c7 mov %rax,%rdi 35: b8 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%eax 3a: e8 00 00 00 00 callq 3f <_ZN8FortyTwo8fortytwoEJii+0x1d> 3f: 8b 45 ec mov -0x14(%rbp),%eax 42: 89 45 fc mov %eax,-0x4(%rbp) 45: 8b 45 fc mov -0x4(%rbp),%eax 48: ba 2a 00 00 00 mov $0x2a,%edx 4d: 01 d0 add %edx,%eax 4f: c9 leaveq 50: c3 retq
- smhenderson 9y ago
  I also remember tools that simply converted Perl code to C. The argument against being that the advantages of an executable would be outweighed by the disadvantages of transpiled C being very inefficient.
  - sigjuice 9y ago
    "Transpile" is not a real and meaningful word. Can we stop using it please? Btw, if you have relevant citations stating otherwise (Wikipedia isn't it), I am happy to be proven wrong. Thanks!

smitherfield 9y ago

>Perl (<=5) is almost always interpreted but there are tools to turn Perl code into an executable. IIRC those tools (of which similar ones exist for Java, Python, Ruby, Node.js, Lua and so on) just package together the sources (precompiled to bytecode) and an instance of the Perl[5] interpreter.

sigjuice 9y ago
Here's Java getting compiled to actual x86-64 code (mov $0x2a,%edx; add %edx,%eax). $ cat FortyTwo.java public class FortyTwo { public static int fortytwo(int x) { return x + 42; } } $ gcj-4.9 -c FortyTwo.java $ objdump -S FortyTwo.o FortyTwo.o: file format elf64-x86-64 Disassembly of section .text: <snip> 0000000000000022 <_ZN8FortyTwo8fortytwoEJii>: { public static int fortytwo(int x) { return x + 42; 22: 55 push %rbp 23: 48 89 e5 mov %rsp,%rbp 26: 48 83 ec 20 sub $0x20,%rsp 2a: 89 7d ec mov %edi,-0x14(%rbp) 2d: b8 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%eax 32: 48 89 c7 mov %rax,%rdi 35: b8 00 00 00 00 mov $0x0,%eax 3a: e8 00 00 00 00 callq 3f <_ZN8FortyTwo8fortytwoEJii+0x1d> 3f: 8b 45 ec mov -0x14(%rbp),%eax 42: 89 45 fc mov %eax,-0x4(%rbp) 45: 8b 45 fc mov -0x4(%rbp),%eax 48: ba 2a 00 00 00 mov $0x2a,%edx 4d: 01 d0 add %edx,%eax 4f: c9 leaveq 50: c3 retq
smhenderson 9y ago
I also remember tools that simply converted Perl code to C. The argument against being that the advantages of an executable would be outweighed by the disadvantages of transpiled C being very inefficient.
- sigjuice 9y ago
  "Transpile" is not a real and meaningful word. Can we stop using it please? Btw, if you have relevant citations stating otherwise (Wikipedia isn't it), I am happy to be proven wrong. Thanks!