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Robert Harvey
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The terms "interpreter" and "compiler" are much more fuzzy than they used to be. Many years ago it was more common for compilers to produce machine code to be executed later, while interpreters more or less "executed" the source code directly. So those two terms were well understood back then.

But today there are many variations on the use of "compiler" and "interpreter." For example, VB6 "compiles" to byte code (a form of Intermediate Language), which is then "interpreted" by the VB Runtime. A similar process takes place in C#, which produces CIL that is then executed by a Just-In-Time Compiler (JIT) which, in the old days, would have been thought of as an interpreter. You can "freeze-dry" the output of the JIT into an actual binary executable by using NGen.exe, the product of which would have been the result of a compiler in the old days.

So the answer to your question is not nearly as straightforward as it once was.

Robert Harvey
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