compiler

programming, tool A program that converts another program

from some source language (or programming language) to

machine language (object code). Some compilers output

assembly language which is then converted to machinelanguage by a separate assembler.

A compiler is distinguished from an assembler by the fact that

each input statement does not, in general, correspond to a

single machine instruction or fixed sequence of instructions.

A compiler may support such features as automatic allocation

of variables, arbitrary arithmetic expressions, control

structures such as FOR and WHILE loops, variable scope,

input/ouput operations, higher-order functions and

portability of source code.

AUTOCODER, written in 1952, was possibly the first primitive

compiler. Laning and Zierler's compiler, written in

1953-1954, was possibly the first true working algebraic

compiler.

See also byte-code compiler, native compiler, optimisingcompiler.

(1994-11-07)