Translator (computing)

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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, or interpreter—anything that converts code from one computer language into another. These include translations between high-level and human-readable computer languages such as C++ and Java, intermediate-level languages such as Java bytecode, low-level languages such as the assembly language and machine code, and between similar levels of language on different computing platforms, as well as from any of these to any other of these. 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 gates needed to build it. The software development process is noticeably different depending on the type of translator used by a developer, this of course differs from translator to translator. Stages of the development process that are influenced by a translator include the initial programming stage, the debugging stage, and most notably the execution process. Factors that are affected during these stages include code performance, feedback speed for the debugging process, language features, and platform independence. Some of the more notable programming language processors used to translate code are compilers, interpreters, and assemblers. Compiler software interacts with source code by converting it typically from a higher-level programming language into object code that can later be executed by the computer's central processing unit (CPU). The object code created by the compiler consists of machine-readable code that the computer can process.