What do we call the process of turning human-readable source code into machine language?
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Source code is the list of human-readable instructions that a programmer writes—often in a word processing program—when he is developing a program. The source code is run through a compiler to turn it into machine code, also called object code, that a computer can understand and execute. Object code consists primarily of 1s and 0s, so it isn't human-readable. Source Code ExampleSource code and object code are the before and after states of a computer program that is compiled. Programming languages that compile their code include C, C++, Delphi, Swift, Fortran, Haskell, Pascal and many others. Here is an example of C language source code: /* Hello World program */ #include main() {printf("Hello World")} You don't have to be a computer programmer to tell that this code has something to do with printing "Hello World." Of course, most source code is much more complex than this example. It is not unusual for software programs to have millions of lines of code. Windows 10 operating system is reported to have about 50 million lines of code. Source Code LicensingSource code can be either proprietary or open. Many companies closely guard their source code. Users can use the compiled code, but they cannot see or modify it. Microsoft Office is an example of proprietary source code. Other companies post their code on the internet where it is free to anyone to download. Apache OpenOffice is an example of open source software code. Interpreted Program Languages CodeSome programming languages such as JavaScript are not compiled into machine code but are interpreted instead. In these cases, the distinction between source code and object code does not apply because there is only one code. That single code is the source code, and it can be read and copied. In some cases, developers of this code may intentionally encrypt it to prevent viewing. Programming languages that are interpreted include Python, Java, Ruby, Perl, PHP, Postscript, VBScript and many others.
InstructionsAll computer software is built up of sets of instructions. Instructions are encoded in binary. The fetch-decode-execute cycle is the sequence of steps that the CPU follows to process instructions. Most programmers do not write
programs as sequences of
binary digits. They use programming languages like Java, C++, Ruby, BASIC or Python. These are also known as
high-level programming languages. High-level languages need to be translated into a binary code before the
CPU can execute them. The benefit of high-level languages is that they are more like everyday written language than sequences of binary numbers, so people find them easier to write and understand.
Languages can be defined as human-readable or
machine-readable:
Did you know?The first computers were programmed using machine code. Today, it is more common for programmers to use high-level languages. TranslatorsA piece of translator software, which is usually included within programming software, converts high-level languages into machine code. These translators are known as compilers and interpreters. Programs are translated using either a compiler or interpreter. CompilerA compiler translates a human-readable program directly into an executable, machine-readable form before the program can run. InterpreterAn interpreter translates a human-readable program into an executable, machine-readable form, instruction by instruction. It then executes each translated instruction before moving on to the next one. A program is translated every time it is run. Python is an example of an interpreted language.
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What is the process of converting source code into machine code called?The correct answer is Compiler. A compiler takes the program code (source code) and converts the source code to a machine language module (called an object file).
What is the process of translating human language to a machine based language?Machine translation is the process of using artificial intelligence to automatically translate text from one language to another without human involvement. Modern machine translation goes beyond simple word-to-word translation to communicate the full meaning of the original language text in the target language.
What converts computer language into machine language?A compiler is a translator program that converts a high-level language source program into a machine language object program.
What is the process of translating humanCompilers are computer programs that translate high-level programming code into lower-level code like assembly language. The compiler is part of the computer translation hierarchy which ultimately translates human-readable code into machine-readable code.
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