WhileInterpreter 4.2

WhileInterpreter is an interpreter for the WHILE programming language used for learning purpose.

WhileInterpreter has few constructs and easy semantics.

Command line interpreters allow users to issue various commands in a very efficient (and often terse) way. This requires the user to know the names of the commands and their parameters, and the syntax of the language that is interpreted. From the 1960s onwards, user interaction with computers was primarily by means of command line interfaces.

In the 1970s, researchers began to develop graphical user interfaces (GUIs)to provide an alternative user interface for computers, whereby commands were represented by pictorial operations, rather than as textual descriptions. Since they are easier to learn than command line interfaces, they have become the most common way of interacting with a computer.

However, command line interpreters remain widely used in conjunction with GUIs. For some complex tasks, the latter are less effective because of the large number of menus and dialog boxes presented and because of the innate difficulty of representing the underlying task graphically.