1.6 Language translators

Programmers use different programming languages to write their applications. In order to convert their program codes from a high level language to machine language, we need to use a language translator. Another name for language translator is the compiler. A compiler is actually a computer program that translates programs written in a high-level language into machine code (the form in which they can be run by the computer). The compiler translates each high-level instruction into several machine-code instructions - in a process called compilation - and produces a complete independent program that can be run by the computer as often as required, without the original source program being present.

Examples of compilers:

• C compiler - a compiler for programs written in C

• Fortran compiler - a compiler for programs written in FORTRAN

• LISP compiler - a compiler for programs written in LISP

• Pascal compiler - a compiler for programs written in Pascal