Direct execution virtual machine

A method for parsing and executing a software program includes receiving a portion of a software program in an original linguistic form, wherein the portion of the software program includes a nonlinear program element having a body, and, while retaining the original linguistic form, directly executing the nonlinear program element by manipulating a parse state and an input stream of tokens representing the body of the nonlinear program element, wherein directly executing comprises executing tokens until the dynamic end of the nonlinear program element is reached. A system includes a tokenizer operable to tokenize the software program and a parser operable to directly execute a nonlinear program element in the software program by manipulating a parse state and an input stream of tokens representing the body of the nonlinear program element, while preserving the original linguistic form of the software program.