As we can see from the examples so far, Octave has an command-line interface—
commands are typed in one at a time at the prompt, each followed by return. Octave is
an interpreted language, which means that each command is converted to machine code
after it has been typed. In compiled languages, e.g. C++, language the whole program
is typed into a text editor, these are all converted into machine code in one go using a
compiler, and then the whole program is run. These compiled programs run more quickly
than an interpreted program, but take more time to put together. It is quicker to try
things out with Octave, even if the calculation takes a little longer.6