About Source Code and Scripts

Source code is a collection of computer instructions. Source code written in a computer language like C++ is transformed by a compiler into machine code that can be read by the computer. Source code can be written in the form of a scripting language like PHP, JavaScript, or Python. Scripting languages do some translation into machine code at run-time. Waiting until run-time to do the translation leads to a short delay compared to source code that is compiled in advance of execution.