Interpreters and Virtual Machines

This lecture covers the concepts of interpreters and virtual machines. It explains the pros and cons of interpreters, the differences between text-based and tree-based interpreters, the role and advantages of virtual machines, and the drawbacks they face in terms of performance. The lecture also delves into the implementation of virtual machines, different types of virtual machines, and optimization techniques such as threaded code and top-of-stack caching. It concludes with a detailed discussion on memory management, explicit and implicit deallocation, garbage collection techniques, and the challenges associated with fragmentation.