S9:E6 - "Two translators, both alike in dignity"

03/11/20 • 19 min

We have been talking a lot about compilers, and in this episode we discuss the differences between compilation versus interpretation. An interpreter is also a translator, just like a compiler, in that it takes a high level language (our source text) and converts it into machine code. However, it does something slightly different: it actually runs and executes the code that it translates immediately (inline) as it translates. Based on Vaidehi Joshi's blog post, "A Deeper Inspection Into Compilation And Interpretation".

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Vaidehi Joshi (co-host)

Vaidehi is a writer and an engineer at Tilde, where she works on Skylight. She's the creator of basecs, a weekly writing series that explores the fundamentals of computer science.

Saron Yitbarek (co-host)

Saron is a developer, podcaster, founder of CodeNewbie, and host of the CodeNewbie Podcast.

CodeNewbie

CodeNewbie is the most supportive community of programmers and people learning to code. They produce the CodeNewbie Podcast and the annual Codeland conference. Follow them on twitter @CodeNewbies. For more info, checkout www.codenewbie.org

We're on Patreon!

If you like the show and want to support our work, become a patron here. You'll get stickers, postcards, and even socks. Let's make computer science more accessible and fun!

Vaidehi Joshi (co-host)

Vaidehi is a writer and an engineer at Tilde, where she works on Skylight. She's the creator of basecs, a weekly writing series that explores the fundamentals of computer science.

Saron Yitbarek (co-host)

Saron is a developer, podcaster, founder of CodeNewbie, and host of the CodeNewbie Podcast.

CodeNewbie

Previous Episode

S9:E5 - "Paring down our parse trees with AST"

In this episode, we take our parse tree, an illustrated, pictorial version of the grammatical structure of a sentence, and we take a metaphorical broom to sweep away repetitive bits, sliming it down, and leveling it up by creating an abstract syntax tree (AST). Based on Vaidehi Joshi's blog post, "Leveling Up One’s Parsing Game With ASTs".

We're on Patreon!

If you like the show and want to support our work, become a patron here. You'll get stickers, postcards, and even socks. Let's make computer science more accessible and fun!

Vaidehi Joshi (co-host)

Vaidehi is a writer and an engineer at Tilde, where she works on Skylight. She's the creator of basecs, a weekly writing series that explores the fundamentals of computer science.

Saron Yitbarek (co-host)

Saron is a developer, podcaster, founder of CodeNewbie, and host of the CodeNewbie Podcast.

CodeNewbie

Next Episode

S9:E7 - "This way to translate is le-JIT"

We've been talking a lot about the differences between compilers and interpreters, and how both of them work, and the ways that allowed one — the compiler — to lead to the creation of the other — the interpreter. Now we get into the Just In Time compiler, or a JIT, which is fusion or combination of the interpreter and the compiler, which are each two types of translators in their own right. A just-in-time compiler has many of the benefits of both of these two translation techniques, all rolled up into one. Based on Vaidehi Joshi's blog post, "A Most Perfect Union: Just-In-Time Compilers".

We're on Patreon!

If you like the show and want to support our work, become a patron here. You'll get stickers, postcards, and even socks. Let's make computer science more accessible and fun!

Vaidehi Joshi (co-host)

Vaidehi is a writer and an engineer at Tilde, where she works on Skylight. She's the creator of basecs, a weekly writing series that explores the fundamentals of computer science.

Saron Yitbarek (co-host)

Saron is a developer, podcaster, founder of CodeNewbie, and host of the CodeNewbie Podcast.

CodeNewbie