What is a compiler?

Question

Describe briefly the C compilation process.

Answer 1

Source codes for C programs are written as ASCII text. They must be compiled and linked to produce executable programs. The executable files are what you actually run on UNIX.
The compilation of code involves several steps:

1)parsing of the statements for syntax
2)translation of the statements into machine language
3)setting up the addresses of all variables
4)optimization of the code (if desired)

In most modern computers, various languages, e.g. Fortran and C, have distinct syntax handlers, but share a common translator into assembly language, and a common optimization engine.

The linking step assembles the various routines produced by the compiler during the compilation step, and resolves missing calls to either language-specific libraries or system-wide functions.

Answer 2

A compiler is a special program that processes statements written in a particular programming language and turns them into machine language or "code" that a computer's processor uses. Typically, a programmer writes language statements in a language such as Pascal or C one line at a time using an editor. The file that is created contains what are called the source statements. The programmer then runs the appropriate language compiler, specifying the name of the file that contains the source statements.

Answer 3

A compiler is a computer program (or set of programs) that translates text written in a computer language (the source language) into another computer language (the target language). The original sequence is usually called the source code and the output called object code. Commonly the output has a form suitable for processing by other programs (e.g., a linker), but it may be a human readable text file.

The most common reason for wanting to translate source code is to create an executable program. The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that translate source code from a high level language to a lower level language (e.g., assembly language or machine language). A program that translates from a low level language to a higher level one is a decompiler. A program that translates between high-level languages is usually called a language translator, source to source translator, or language converter. A language rewriter is usually a program that translates the form of expressions without a change of language.

A compiler is likely to perform many or all of the following operations: lexing, preprocessing, parsing, semantic analysis, code optimizations, and code generation.

Answer 4

Everyone has basically skipped a few steps. A compiler analysis you code and converts it into an object file that contains machine level instructions (exactly what those instructions are depends upon the machine).
Then you have to use a tool called a Linker whickk puts together all of the different routines you have written from one or more files and combines them with something called a runtime-library (this contains routines that are called from your program like square, and square rood, print, etc). The output from the linker is and executable file which is your final program which will run on your machine.

Answer 5

LoL... what exactly is a compiler compilers? Are talking about compilers in general? A specific compiler? I think first you have to figure out what it's called and why you're doing a research paper on it.

Answer 6

A compiler is a program that translates a source program written in some high-level programming language (such as Java) into machine code for some computer architecture (such as the Intel Pentium architecture). The generated machine code can be later executed many times against different data each time.

Answer 7

A compiler converts third generation code, such a C, to Assembler. It will then be in the "language" of the machine on which it was compiled. It will then run the coded instruction faster.

Answer 8

A compiler is used to translate the pseudocode that is written into machine language so that the computer can read it and the program will actually work.

Answer 9

Complier is to make your source code workable.

In other words, you do a program, they are tagged along with your program to work, complier will complie it to a exe file so that someone does not need a program to run, they just need your exe file to run

Answer 10

onverts the high level c code into machine code so the comp can understand it