What is an interpreter?

A question I'd like to pose to the readership with respect to either
program generators or programmable applications. How do we determine when
something is a "real" interpreter of a "real" language, and when it
doesn't quite reach that point?


Is DBASE III a "real" interpreter? No question that it is. Is Lotus
1-2-3's macro language sufficient to qualify? Maybe. (Using the
qualification below, it doesn't.)


Here's the reason why: at what point does a programmable application cross
over from just a means to assist the application in doing whatever it
primarily does, and becomes a programming language in and of itself?


If you have an adventure game engine which has a programming language such
that it can be programmed do add features, the possible point would be if
an application without the adventure features, for example, to do a
calculation or to scan a file, can be created using the language.


File I/O, I think is the knife that cuts the "toys" from the "real"
languages. Programmable interpreters that support random-access file I/O
and the ability to read and write random records, stop being toys and
become real programming languages. I think this, more than anything else,
represents the touchstone which may be used to identify when and where the
two classes may be differentiated.
-----
Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM
[Hmmn, that rules out most implementations of Fortran-66, awk, and the
Bourne shell. -John]
--

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