Is Perl Interpreted or Compiled Language

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• Compiled languages: C, C++
• Compiled and interpreted languages: Java, Perl
• Interpreted languages: BASIC (or Shell)

Perl is in the middle as it is compiled to a byte tree (similarly to Java) that is never saved as a file. It also requires the interpreter to be available with the Perl program.

Advantages of a compiled language:

• Can be faster especially in short applications
• Does not need a compiler/interpreter/Virtual Machine on the users machine (it can be distributed on its own)

Disadvantages of a compiled language:

• It has to be compiled separately to every platform
• Difficult to make it platform independent