A compiled language is a programming language whose implementations are typically compilers (translators which generate machine code from source code), and not interpreter (computing) (step-by-step executors of source code, where no translation takes place).

The term is somewhat vague; in principle any language can be implemented with a compiler or with an interpreter. A combination of both solutions is also increasingly common: a compiler can translate the source code into some intermediate form (often called bytecode), which is then passed to an interpreter which executes it.

A program translated by a compiler is often much faster than an interpreter executing the same program: even a 10:1 ratio is not uncommon. The mixed solution s efficiency is typically somewhere in between. The downsides of the compiler solution are the inherent complexity of a good implementation, and longer edit-run cycles.

A pure compiler implementation is the typical solution for low-level languages, because it comes out as more natural , and because of efficiency concerns; however with some effort it is always possible to write compilers even for traditionally interpreted language such as Lisp programming language and Prolog.

Some languages that are commonly considered to be compiled:

=Tools=

*ANTLR *CodeWorker *Lex *Yacc *GNU bison

=See also=

*Compiler *interpreter (computer software) *interpreted language

=External links=