Subject: Re: LISP interpreter ? From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no> Date: 1995/09/22 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <19950922T211805Z@naggum.no> [krystal@slip.net (Krystal)] | but in what way is incremental compilation different from | interpretation? i would think that an interpreter would still have to | compile whatever you gave it before it could be run through the cpu, | right? an interpreter looks at each form and evaluates it by means of deciding on which functions or code to execute based on the form. a compiler would run essentially the same code (subject to optimization), but the compiler would have made the decisions on which code to run in advance, instead of interleaved with the execution of that code. you can write an interpreting evaluator for the simplest cases pretty easily, and this is a usual exercise in Lisp courses to enhance the students' understanding of how Lisp code is evaluated. #<Erik 3020793485> -- computers -- the only field where knowing the past will make you less able to appreciate the present.