com⋅pil⋅er
[kuh
m-pahy-ler] 
| 1. | a person who compiles. |
| 2. | Also called compiling routine. Computers. a computer program that translates a program written in a high-level language into another language, usually machine language. Compare interpreter (def. 3a). |
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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| com·pil·er (kəm-pī'lər) n.
|
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Compiler
Com*pil"er\, n. [OE. compiluor; cf. OF. compileor, fr. L. compilator.] One who compiles; esp., one who makes books by compilation.Cite This Source
| compiler (kəm-pī'lər) Pronunciation Key
A computer program associated with certain programming languages that converts the instructions written in those languages into machine code that can later be executed directly by a computer. See more at programming language. |
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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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 machine language 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, optimising compiler.
(1994-11-07)
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