| n. | 1. | One who compiles; esp., one who makes books by compilation. |
| 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. |
| Noun | 1. | compiler - a person who compiles (or writes for) encyclopedias Synonyms: encyclopaedist, encyclopedist |
| 2. | compiler - (computer science) a program that decodes instructions written in a higher order language and produces an assembly language program Synonyms: compiling program |
| (programming, tool) | 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. |