[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

compiler \compil"er\ ko^mpimacl"~er, n. oe.
   compiluor; cf. of. compileor, fr. l. compilator.
   1. one who compiles; esp., one who makes books by
      compilation.
      1913 webster

   2. computers a computer program that decodes instructions
      written in a higher-level computer language to produce an
      assembly-language program or an executable program in
      machine language.
      wordnet 1.5 +pjc

[2] : WordNet (r) 2.0

compiler
     n 1: a person who compiles or writes for encyclopedias syn: encyclopedist,
           encyclopaedist
     2: computer science a program that decodes instructions
        written in a higher order language and produces an
        assembly language program syn: compiling program
see also:
encyclopedist encyclopaedist compiling program 

[3] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

compiler
     
         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
     
     
see also:
source language programming language machine language assembly language machine language assembler 
scope higher-order function portability autocoder laning and zierler 
byte-code compiler native compiler optimising compiler 

Compiler >> C Words
Compiler, definition of term: Compiler
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