A language processor that analyses a small unit of code, for example a single line, and then carries out the specified actions, rather than producing a machine-code translation to be executed later.
Internet
A program which takes another program written in some language and then executes it directly. Sometimes the interpreter converts the program to an intermediate form which is easier to execute. Interpreters are different from compilers which convert the code to machine code which is then directly executed by a computer. Occasionally the term is also used to describe any processor which carries out execution based on the content of a file; for example, a program which forbids certain categories of user from accessing parts of the World Wide Web based on some script.