The first step in developing a hybrid implementation of a programming language i

Question

The first step in developing a hybrid implementation of a programming language is to design an abstract machine. In order to execute a program written in the source language, we need a compiler that translates the source and generates object codes in the abstract machine language, which are in turn interpreted by an abstract machine emulator running on the target computer. Java is a good example language enjoying a hybrid implementation. (a) Give a disadvantage of hybrid implementations with respect to the compilation approach. Explain why. (b) Give two potential good uses (or advantages) of hybrid implementations over the compilation approach.

Explanation / Answer

Answer a) In the compilation approach we have a compiler that will translate the program code into the executable code specific to the traget machine. While in hybrid implementation, program code is first converted into some intermediate code then this code is read by another program called interpreter that will processed this intermediate program to executable code specific to the target machine. So we can say that hybrid implementation is slow than compilation approach.

b) Advantages of hybrid approach over compilation approach:
   i) Hyrid approach is easy to implement rather than writting our own compiler for compiling the code.
   ii) Hyrid approach is more portable than the compilation approach
  
c) i) Single Ji++ compiler is enough in this case.
   ii) Its depend upon the way we have written our Ji++ compiler. We can have a single executable for the ji++ compiler as well.

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