The code of interpreted languages however must be translated at run-time from any format to CPU machine instructions. That is, the executable code is specified in the CPU's 'native' language ( assembly language). In fact, interpreters for C do exist.īasically, compiled code can be executed directly by the computer's CPU. While statements like 'C is a compiled language' are generally true, there's nothing to stop someone from writing a C language interpreter. Why the striked-through text? As this answer correctly points out, interpreted/compiled is about a concrete implementation of a language, not about the language per se. Java (interpreted) and C (or C++) (compiled) might have been a better example.
Java and JavaScript are a fairly bad example to demonstrate this difference, because both are interpreted languages.
