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From: Bart <bc@freeuk.com>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Command Languages Versus Programming Languages
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2024 20:06:12 +0100
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On 13/10/2024 17:31, Kaz Kylheku wrote:
> On 2024-10-11, Muttley@DastartdlyHQ.org <Muttley@DastartdlyHQ.org> wrote:
>> Irrelevant. Lot of interpreters do partial compilation and the JVM does it
>> on the fly. A proper compiler writes a standalone binary file to disk.
> 
> You might want to check those goalposts again. You can easily make a
> "proper compiler" which just writes a canned interpreter executable to
> disk, appending to it the program source code.
> 

So, an interpreter. The rest is just details of its deployment. In your 
example, the program being run is just some embedded data.

Maybe the real question is what is 'hardware', and what is 'software'. 
But the answer won't make everyone happy because because hardware can be 
emulated in software.

(Implementing software in hardware, specifically the bit of software 
that interprets a VM, is less common, and generally harder.)

I prefer that there is a clear distinction between compiler and 
interpreter, because you immediately know what's what. (Here I'm 
excluding complex JIT products that mix up both.)