compiler

[kuh m-pahy-ler] /kəmˈpaɪ lər/

noun

a person who compiles.

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).

Origin

1300-50; Middle English compilour < Anglo-French; Old French compileor < Late Latin compīlātōr-. See compile, -er²

Related forms

precompiler, noun

Examples from the web for compiler

Not as a reference manager and bibliography compiler.
When the index was finished, it was a miserly thing-hastily done, fully advertising the reluctance of its compiler.
C++ relies on the traditional architecture plus compiler techniques for abstraction.
The compiler often offers other clues to a malware sample's origin.
He was far from being a colorless and characterless compiler.
Use threads or compiler-provided parallelism to exploit the multiple cores.
Defines one of four slip-rate categories as determined by the compiler or based on reported slip rates.
We taught the compiler how to build and modify object libraries.
compiler options are categorized by their functions and may be used to set the compiler behavior.
In the case where the compiler does not generate errors, nothing needs to be done to the existing interface.

British Dictionary definitions for compiler

compiler

/kəmˈpaɪlə/

noun

a person who collects or compiles something

a computer program by which a high-level programming language, such as COBOL or FORTRAN, is converted into machine language that can be acted upon by a computer Compare assembler

Word Origin and History for compiler

early 14c., from Anglo-French compilour, Old French compileur "author, chronicler," from Latin compilatorem, agent noun from compilare (see compile). Another form of the word current in early Modern English was compilator, directly from the Latin.

compiler in Science

compiler

(kəm-pī'lər)
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.

compiler in Technology

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)