Art of Assembly Language, 1st Edition

10.2. 10.2 Introduction to the Compile Time Language (CTL)

HLA is actually two languages rolled into a single program. The run-time language is the standard 80×86/HLA assembly language you've been reading about in all the past chapters. This is called the run-time language because the programs you write execute when you run the executable file. HLA contains an interpreter for a second language, the HLA compile time language (or CTL) that executes programs while HLA is compiling a program. The source code for the CTL program is embedded in an HLA assembly language source file; that is, HLA source files contain instructions for both the HLA CTL and the run-time program. HLA executes the CTL program during compilation. Once HLA completes compilation, ...