Editing Interpreter (computing) (section)

=== {{anchor|Compreter}}Bytecode interpreters ===
{{main|Bytecode}}
There is a spectrum of possibilities between interpreting and compiling, depending on the amount of analysis performed before the program is executed. For example, [[Emacs Lisp]] is compiled to [[bytecode]], which is a highly compressed and optimized representation of the Lisp source, but is not machine code (and therefore not tied to any particular hardware). This "compiled" code is then interpreted by a bytecode interpreter (itself written in [[C (programming language)|C]]). The compiled code in this case is machine code for a [[virtual machine]], which is implemented not in hardware, but in the bytecode interpreter. Such compiling interpreters are sometimes also called ''compreters''.<ref name="Kühnel_1987_Kleincomputer">{{cite book |editor-first1=Rainer |editor-last1=Erlekampf |editor-first2=Hans-Joachim |editor-last2=Mönk |author-first=Claus |author-last=Kühnel |page=222 |title=Mikroelektronik in der Amateurpraxis |trans-title=Micro-electronics for the practical amateur |chapter=4. Kleincomputer - Eigenschaften und Möglichkeiten |trans-chapter=4. Microcomputer - Properties and possibilities |publisher={{ill|Militärverlag der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik|de}}, Leipzig |location=Berlin |date=1987 |orig-year=1986 |edition=3 |language=de |isbn=3-327-00357-2 |id=7469332}}</ref><ref name="Heyne_1984_Compreter">{{cite journal |title=Basic-Compreter für U880 |trans-title=BASIC compreter for U880 (Z80) |author-first=R. |author-last=Heyne |journal={{ill|radio-fernsehn-elektronik|de|Radio Fernsehen Elektronik}} |language=de |date=1984 |volume=1984 |issue=3 |pages=150–152}}</ref> In a bytecode interpreter each instruction starts with a byte, and therefore bytecode interpreters have up to 256 instructions, although not all may be used. Some bytecodes may take multiple bytes, and may be arbitrarily complicated.

[[Control table]]s - that do not necessarily ever need to pass through a compiling phase - dictate appropriate algorithmic [[control flow]] via customized interpreters in similar fashion to bytecode interpreters.