Editing Interpreter (computing) (section)

=== Just-in-time compilation ===
{{main|Just-in-time compilation}}
Further blurring the distinction between interpreters, bytecode interpreters and compilation is just-in-time (JIT) compilation, a technique in which the intermediate representation is compiled to native [[machine code]] at runtime. This confers the efficiency of running native code, at the cost of startup time and increased memory use when the bytecode or AST is first compiled. The earliest published JIT compiler is generally attributed to work on [[Lisp (programming language)|LISP]] by [[John McCarthy (computer scientist)|John McCarthy]] in 1960.{{sfn|Aycock|2003|loc=2. JIT Compilation Techniques, 2.1 Genesis, p. 98}} [[Adaptive optimization]] is a complementary technique in which the interpreter profiles the running program and compiles its most frequently executed parts into native code. The latter technique is a few decades old, appearing in languages such as [[Smalltalk]] in the 1980s.<ref>L. Deutsch, A. Schiffman, [http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=800017.800542 Efficient implementation of the Smalltalk-80 system], Proceedings of 11th POPL symposium, 1984.</ref>

Just-in-time compilation has gained mainstream attention amongst language implementers in recent years, with [[Java platform|Java]], the [[.NET Framework]], most modern [[JavaScript]] implementations, and [[Matlab]] now including JIT compilers.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}}