Lisp programming language in the context of Interpreter (software)

Lisp programming language in the context of Interpreter (software)

Lisp programming language Study page number 1 of 1

Play TriviaQuestions Online!

 or

Skip to study material about Lisp programming language in the context of "Interpreter (software)"

⭐ Core Definition: Lisp programming language

Lisp (historically LISP, an abbreviation of "list processing") is a family of programming languages with a long history and a distinctive, fully parenthesized prefix notation.Originally specified in the late 1950s, it is the second-oldest high-level programming language still in common use, after Fortran. Lisp has changed since its early days, and many dialects have existed over its history. Today, the best-known general-purpose Lisp dialects are Common Lisp, Scheme, Racket, and Clojure.

Lisp was originally created as a practical mathematical notation for computer programs, influenced by (though not originally derived from) the notation of Alonzo Church's lambda calculus. It quickly became a favored programming language for artificial intelligence (AI) research. As one of the earliest programming languages, Lisp pioneered many ideas in computer science, including tree data structures, automatic storage management, dynamic typing, conditionals, higher-order functions, recursion, the self-hosting compiler, and the read–eval–print loop.

↓ Menu
HINT:

In this Dossier

Lisp programming language in the context of Interpreter (computing)

In computing, an interpreter is software that executes source code without first compiling it to machine code. An interpreted runtime environment differs from one that processes CPU-native executable code which requires translating source code before executing it. An interpreter may translate the source code to an intermediate format, such as bytecode. A hybrid environment may translate the bytecode to machine code via just-in-time compilation, as in the case of .NET and Java, instead of interpreting the bytecode directly.

Before the widespread adoption of interpreters, the execution of computer programs often relied on compilers, which translate and compile source code into machine code. Early runtime environments for Lisp and BASIC could parse source code directly. Thereafter, runtime environments were developed for languages (such as Perl, Raku, Python, MATLAB, and Ruby), which translated source code into an intermediate format before executing to enhance runtime performance.

View the full Wikipedia page for Interpreter (computing)
↑ Return to Menu
LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Interpreter (computing) ← Interpreter (software)
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Programming language → Parenthesized → Polish notation → High-level programming language → Fortran → Programming language dialect → Common Lisp → Scheme (programming language) → Racket (programming language) → Clojure → Mathematical notation → Computer program → Alonzo Church → Lambda calculus → Artificial intelligence → Computer science → Tree (data structure) → Garbage collection (computer science) → Dynamic typing → Conditional (computer programming) → Higher-order function → Recursion (computer science) → Self-hosting (compilers) → Read–eval–print loop →