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Compiler

Formal Sciences

A compiler is a program that translates code written in one programming language, the source language, into another, the target language, typically turning human readable source code into the machine code a processor can run directly. Grace Hopper's team at Remington Rand wrote an early program they called a compiler for the A-0 system in 1952, coining the term, though by later standards it worked more like a loader that assembled and linked pre-written subroutines than a full compiler translating a complete language; compilers translating a general purpose high level language into machine code followed later in the 1950s, including for Fortran and for Hopper's own COBOL.

Facts
Proposed Year
1952 1
Sourced to the subject's own accountGrace Hopper's team wrote the compiler for the A-0 programming language in May 1952 and coined the term compiler to describe it.
Proposed BySourced to the subject's own account
Grace Hopper 1
Connections

Associated With

Belongs To

Source Compiler (Wikipedia)

Invented By

Grace Hopper, Scientists

Hopper developed the A-0 System in 1952, widely credited as the first compiler, translating symbolic code into machine instructions.

Studied In

Source Compiler (Wikipedia)
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Informed

Also in Technology and Engineering Atlas: which this subject informed.

Sources
1. Compiler (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia
  • History section
  • Belongs To: Computer Science, Lead paragraph
    In computing, a compiler is software that translates computer code written in one programming language (the source language) into another language (the target language).
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