Editing Parrot virtual machine (section)

{{Update|date=August 2022}}
{{Short description|Software to run programming languages}}
{{Infobox software
| name = Parrot virtual machine
| logo = Parrot Foundation logo.png
| logo size = 220px
| logo alt = Parrot Foundation logo
| developer = 
| latest release version = 8.1.0
| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2016|02|16}}<ref name="Release Note">{{cite web
  | url = http://www.parrot.org/news/2016/Parrot-8.1.0
  | title = New supported release 8.1.0 "Andean Parakeet"
  | publisher = Parrot Foundation
  | date = 2016-02-16 | access-date = 2016-09-26
}}</ref>
| discontinued = yes
| replaced_by = [[MoarVM]] (for Raku)
| operating system = [[Cross-platform]]
| programming language = [[C (programming language)|C]]
| genre = [[Virtual machine]]
| license = [[Artistic License]] 2.0
| website = {{official URL}}
}}

'''Parrot''' is a discontinued [[register machine|register-based]] [[process virtual machine]] designed to run [[dynamic language]]s efficiently. It is possible to compile [[Parrot assembly language]] and [[Parrot intermediate representation]] (PIR, an intermediate language) to Parrot [[bytecode]] and execute it. Parrot is [[free software|free]] and [[Open-source software|open-source]] software.<ref name="opensource">{{cite web|url=http://www.parrot.org/files/parrot_cla.pdf|title=Parrot Contributor License Agreement 1.0|publisher=Parrot Foundation|access-date=2009-03-18|archive-date=2010-08-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100816130045/http://www.parrot.org/files/parrot_cla.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Parrot was started by the [[Perl]] community and developed with help from the [[free software community|open-source and free software communities]]. As a result, it was focused on [[license compatibility]] with Perl ([[Artistic License|Artistic License 2.0]]), platform compatibility across a broad array of systems, processor architecture compatibility across most modern processors, speed of execution, small size (around 700k depending on platform), and the flexibility to handle the varying demands made by [[Raku (programming language)|Raku]] and other modern [[dynamic language]]s.

Version 1.0, with a stable [[application programming interface]] (API) for development, was released on March 17, 2009.<ref name="version1">{{cite web
  | url = https://trac.parrot.org/parrot/report/14
  | title = Parrot Roadmap
  | publisher = Parrot Foundation
  | date = 2008-11-20
  | access-date = 2008-11-20
  | archive-date = 2010-04-15
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100415195108/http://trac.parrot.org/parrot/report/14
  | url-status = dead
  }}</ref> The last version is release 8.1.0 "Andean Parakeet".<ref name="Release Note" /> Parrot was officially discontinued in August 2021, after being supplanted by [[MoarVM]] in its main use (Raku) and never becoming a mainstream VM for any of its other supported languages.<ref name="inactive-parrot">{{cite web |title=Inactive Parrot {{!}} Parrot VM |url=http://www.parrot.org/news/inactive-parrot |website=www.parrot.org}}</ref>