Editing Source code (section)

===Compilation and execution===
Source code files in a high-level programming language must go through a stage of preprocessing into [[machine code]] before the instructions can be carried out.{{sfn|Tracy|2021|p=121}} After being compiled, the program can be saved as an [[object file]] and the [[Loader (computing)|loader]] (part of the operating system) can take this saved file and [[execution (computing)|execute]] it as a [[process]] on the computer hardware.{{sfn|Tracy|2021|pp=122-123}} Some programming languages use an [[Interpreter (computing)|interpreter]] instead of a compiler. An interpreter converts the program into machine code at [[execution (computing)|run time]], which makes them 10 to 100 times slower than compiled programming languages.{{sfn|O'Regan|2022|p=375}}{{sfn|Sebesta|2012|p=28}}