Compilers, interpreters, IDEs, libraries, the operating system and utilities
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The teaching part (1 min) is free to watch. A free account opens the whole lecture: 5 practice questions, 2 real past-paper questions with the answers explained, the mistakes that lose marks, the full-marks tip, a one-card summary and a quick quiz.
What this lecture covers
- From the words you write to the electronics
- Compiler
- Interpreter
Read the transcript of the teaching part
Last time
Before we start: last time, in Von Neumann model, registers, buses, the fetch-execute cycle and interrupts, you learned these points. Here they are again on one card. Keep them in mind, because today builds on them.
From the words you write to the electronics
A programmer writes in a language people can read. The processor only understands machine code, so a translator has to convert one into the other. Around the translator sit the tools that make programming tolerable: the editor, ready-made libraries, and the operating system that runs everything.
Compiler
A compiler translates the whole source program into machine code in one go, creating an executable file. The program then runs without the compiler. It reports all the errors it found after translating. The program will not run until they are fixed. The finished program runs fast, and the source code does not need to be shared.
Interpreter
An interpreter translates one statement, runs it, then moves on. Nothing is saved as an executable. It stops at the first error. So the programmer sees exactly where the program failed, and can test part of a program that is unfinished. But it runs more slowly, and the interpreter must be present every time.
How often it comes up
How often Cambridge has asked each part, counted by ExamYard from every past paper in its question bank: Compilers and interpreters · Purpose and tasks of an Operating System.
The whole chapter: System Software.
Chapter 5: System software
- Compilers, interpreters, IDEs, libraries, the operating system and utilities 7 min
Also for A Level Computer Science 9618
Which topics come up most in A Level Computer Science 9618 past papers, counted from every paper since 2004: Paper 1 topic frequency, Paper 2 topic frequency.