- Compiler, computer software that converts source code written in a high-level language (e.g., C++) into a set of machine-language instructions that a digital computer's CPU can understand. Compilers are huge programmes that include error-checking and other features.
- Some compilers convert high-level languages to intermediate assembly languages, which are then translated (assembled) into machine code via an assembler.
- Other compilers directly generate machine language. Grace Hopper, an American computer scientist, created the term compiler after designing one of the earliest compilers in the early 1950s.
