High-level programming language: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:36, 13 March 2023

Revision as of 22:10, 20 March 2023

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; Compiled: When code written in a language is [[Compiled language|compiled]], its syntax is transformed into an executable form before running. There are two types of compilation:

:; Machine code generation: Some compilers compile source code directly into [[machine code]]. This is the original mode of compilation, and languages that are directly and completely transformed to machine-native code in this way may be called ''truly compiled'' languages. See [[assembly language]].

:; Intermediate representations: When code written in a language is compiled to an [[intermediate representation]], that representation can be optimized or saved for later execution without the need to re-read the source file. When the intermediate representation is saved, it may be in a form such as [[bytecode]]. The intermediate representation must then be interpreted or further compiled to execute it. [[Virtual machine]]s that execute bytecode directly or transform it further into machine code have blurred the once clear distinction between intermediate representations and truly compiled languages.

; Source-to-source translated or transcompiled: Code written in a language may be translated into terms of a lower-level language for which native code compilers are already common. [[JavaScript]] and the language [[C (programming language)|C]] are common targets for such translators. See [[CoffeeScript]], [[Chicken (Scheme implementation)|Chicken]] Scheme, and [[Eiffel (programming language)|Eiffel]] as examples. Specifically, the generated C and C++ code can be seen (as generated from the Eiffel language when using the [[EiffelStudio]] IDE) in the EIFGENs directory of any compiled Eiffel project. In Eiffel, the ''translated'' process is referred to as transcompiling or transcompiled, and the Eiffel compiler as a transcompiler or [[source-to-source compiler]].