interpreted programs must be reduced to machine instructions at run-time it is usually easier to develop applications in an interpreted environment because you don' have to recompile your application each time you want to test small section python is an interpreted programming languagewhile / +are translated by running the source code through compileri / +are compiled languages interpreted languagesin contrastmust be parsedinterpretedand executed each time the program is run another example of an interpreted programming language is phpwhich is mainly used to create dynamic web pages and web applications compiled languages are all translated by running the source code through compiler this results in very efficient code that can be executed any number of times the overhead for the translation is incurred just oncewhen the source is compiledthereafterit need only be loaded and executed during the design of an applicationyou might need to decide whether to use compiled language or an interpreted language for the application source code interpreted languagesin contrastmust be parsedinterpretedand executed each time the program is run thusan interpreted language is generally more suited for doing "ad hoccalculations or simulationswhile compiled languages are better for permanent applications where speed is in focus python packages with python you don' get so much out of the box instead of having all of its functionality built into its coreyou need to install different packages for different topics this approach has advantages and disadvantages an disadvantage is that you need to install these packages separately and then later import these modules in your code this is also typical approach for open source softwarebecause everybody can create their own python packages and distribute them in that way you also find python packages for almost everythingfrom scientific computing to web development