# Programming with Julia interpreter

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-with-julia-interpreter/63064>\
**Category:** Tooling\
**Tags:** question, juliapro\
**Created:** [June 17, 2021, 3:56am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-with-julia-interpreter/63064 "2021-06-17T03:56:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ralph\_Snyder1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ralph_snyder1/32/9398_2.png) [@Ralph\_Snyder1](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Ralph_Snyder1)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 3:56am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-with-julia-interpreter/63064/1 "2021-06-17T03:56:54Z")

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Is it possible to provide a switch in Atom to allow the user to choose between code development with the Julia compiler and the interpreter? My conjecture is that there is a tradeoff between compile times and run-times, and that for many projects _initial_ code development would be faster with the interpreter.

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**Author:** ![gustaphe](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/gustaphe/32/18174_2.png) [@gustaphe](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gustaphe)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 4:31am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-with-julia-interpreter/63064/2 "2021-06-17T04:31:10Z")

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There is no julia interpreter. You could probably write one, but JIT is julia’s secret weapon, it’s not going to be great without it.

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**Author:** ![Ralph\_Snyder1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ralph_snyder1/32/9398_2.png) [@Ralph\_Snyder1](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Ralph_Snyder1)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 4:50am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-with-julia-interpreter/63064/3 "2021-06-17T04:50:29Z")

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Thank you very much for your quick response. I am probably out of my depth with issues like this and had forgotten that compilation implements a JIT strategy. I also take it from your response that the Julia [interpreter](https://github.com/JuliaDebug/JuliaInterpreter.jl) is not standalone from the Julia debugger?

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**Author:** ![gustaphe](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/gustaphe/32/18174_2.png) [@gustaphe](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gustaphe)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 5:20am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-with-julia-interpreter/63064/4 "2021-06-17T05:20:10Z")

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From what I’ve seen, that package is mostly used as a backend for debugging. I doubt there are any speed advantages to speak of.

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**Author:** ![jzr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb9ed0/32.png) [@jzr](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jzr)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 5:44am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-with-julia-interpreter/63064/5 "2021-06-17T05:44:09Z")

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Is there a JuliaInterpreter executable?

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**Author:** ![baggepinnen](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/baggepinnen/32/693_2.png) [@baggepinnen](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/baggepinnen)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 5:49am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-with-julia-interpreter/63064/6 "2021-06-17T05:49:53Z")

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> [@gustaphe](#):
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> There is no julia interpreter.

JuliaInterpreter.jl is certainly a Julia interpreter, and while it was originally written to help with debugging, it can be used to interpret your code without debugging purposes. It’ll likely be slow, but that’s besides the point.

There are some built-in interpretation capabilities as well, command line flags `--compile=min` will reduce the use of the compiler.

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**Author:** ![gustaphe](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/gustaphe/32/18174_2.png) [@gustaphe](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gustaphe)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 6:45am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-with-julia-interpreter/63064/7 "2021-06-17T06:45:19Z")

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Apologies. I meant that there is no executable binary that gives you the kind of benefits op is looking for.

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**Author:** ![mbauman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mbauman/32/31082_2.png) [@mbauman](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mbauman)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 4:41pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/programming-with-julia-interpreter/63064/8 "2023-09-12T16:41:34Z")

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