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compiler

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compiler

 

  3  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Compiler  \Com*pil"er\,  n.  [OE.  compiluor  cf  OF  compileor,  fr 
  L.  compilator.] 
  One  who  compiles;  esp.,  one  who  makes  books  by  compilation. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  compiler 
  n  1:  a  person  who  compiles  (or  writes  for)  encyclopedias  [syn:  {encyclopedist}] 
  2:  (computer  science)  a  program  that  decodes  instructions 
  written  in  a  higher  order  language  and  produces  a  machine 
  language  program  [syn:  {compiling  program}] 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  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  function}s  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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