CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linkercompiler-construction
Elitsa Vrancheva
Elitsa Vrancheva

Reputation: 19

Is linker used only in compiled languages?

Or is it used in interpeted languages as well?

Also, what is the difference in the process of converting high-level language into machine code when implementing a software using interpreted language and compiled language?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 192

Answers (2)

Frank C.
Frank C.

Reputation: 8088

For question #1: Traditional linking is for compiled languages.

With respects to your question #2: If you are asking where the two differ then it can be summarized as:

The intent of compiling a language is to take it from source code to machine code for execution.

The intent of an interpretive language is to bring it to what is referred to as "code" that an interpreter can process. The code in this case, that the compiler produces, is something like "byte code" which is an instruction set defined by a virtual machine (VM) that knows how to executed the byte code instructions. Examples include Java or Python. Note that both of those also can convert the 'byte code' to machine code as well.

Upvotes: 0

user3344003
user3344003

Reputation: 21627

Linking can be used with interpreted languages, depending upon how the interpreter is implemented. If the interpreter parses each statement as it execute it, generally there will be no linking. If the language implementation has a compile steps that produces an intermediate code that is interpreted, then linking can easily take place. Visual Basic, for example, has been implemented as an interpreted language with a compile step.

Upvotes: 3

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