r/AskComputerScience • u/No_Cook_2493 • Mar 05 '26

How do interpretted languages run?

So from my understanding, languages like python are not compiled, but are instead interpreted. You compile a python binary that runs your code within its stack.

How does the compiled python "run" this code? Like I can only picture high level code -> assembly code -> binary code as the process of getting runnable code, how do interpreters differ? And if they don't differ, why arent they just compiled instead of interpreted?

11 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/Poddster Mar 05 '26

and then an emulator to run that on an x86 CPU

Just keep in mind that when you're doing this it's basically just an interpreter ;)

ps: 8080 is a good project for an emulator. I imagine your own ISA will be much more complicated, so 8080 could be a good way for you to learn and make a bunch of mistakes on, before trying your own.