Translator (computing): Difference between revisions

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{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020|cs1-dates=y}}

{{Program execution}}

A '''translator''' or '''programming language processor''' is a computer program that converts the programming instructions written in human convenient form into machine language codes that the computers understand and process. It is a generic term that can refer to a [[compiler]], [[assembler (computing)|assembler]], or [[interpreter (computing)|interpreter]]&mdash;anything that converts code from one computer language into another.<ref name="MCT"/><ref name="Intel_1983_SH"/> These include translations between [[high-level language|high-level]] and human-readable computer languages such as [[C++]] and [[Java (programming language)|Java]], intermediate-level languages such as [[Java bytecode]], [[low-level language]]s such as the [[assembly language]] and [[machine code]], and between similar levels of language on different [[computing platform]]s, as well as from any of these to any other of these.<ref name="MCT"/> The term is also used for translators between software implementations and hardware/[[ASIC]] [[microchip]] implementations of the same program, and from software descriptions of a microchip to the [[logic gate]]s needed to build it.{{Citation needed|date=July 2019}}

Examples of widely used types of computer language translators include interpreters, compilers and [[decompiler]]s, assemblers and [[disassembler]]s.<ref name="Pasteur_2008"/>