You need to be able to parse the code before you can compile or execute it. It helps you by creating the parser for you. | [reply] |
So the parsed code goes through a compiler? And then it is executed?
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A compiler (or interpreter) has a few parts.
A parser converts a file full of source code into a data structure.
An interpreter traverses that data structure and executes the appropriate commands for each significant node in the structure.
A compiler transforms that data structure and emits something else. Perhaps this other is object code for a specific processor or perhaps it's binary code for a virtual machine or perhaps it's source code for another language entirely.
If you look at compiling and implementing languages this way, you already know the general technique. (everything is a compiler).
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