A method and a system are provided for efficiently executing computer programs that require invocation of an interpreter. A name of a program to be interpreted or executed is received, with zero or more arguments, at an interface client element. The interface client element may be implemented as a compact software element that is invoked using a command-line command. The interface client passes the program name and arguments to a server process that includes an interpreter. The server process provides the name and arguments to the interpreter. Interpretation results are received and passed back to the interface client. Efficient start-up is achieved for small, interpreted application programs for which start-up overhead exceeds the resources required to execute the programs. Embodiments are applicable to JAVA and to any computer programming language that can be used to write the server process, and that can dynamically instantiate and execute program code.