3 ms·

At the point where we are calling things that compile to assembly "transpilers" I don't think there is any distinction left, much less a useful one. I mean the

At the point where we are calling things that compile to assembly "transpilers" I don't think there is any distinction left, much less a useful one. I mean the classic notion of a compiler is a program that turns things into assembly, which is then taken into machine code by an assembler. I agree with you that we've lost though: no amount of protest is going to make people stop using the word "transpiler".

drdrey 9y ago
A compiler is a program that turns programs in a source language into equivalent programs in a target language. It is generally assumed that a compiler goes from high level to low level, a decompiler low-to-high and a transpiler high-to-high. I guess in this case the transpiler is low-to-low, so maybe "transpiler" is just used to mean "samey-to-samey"
- lloeki 9y ago
  Isn't "low-to-low" typically called static recompilation or binary translation esp. in emulation circles?
  - iotscale 9y ago
    That is correct but we are not talking in the context of the emulation circles.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
ant6n 9y ago
A compiler is a program that translates programs from one language to another. > At the point where we are calling things that compile to assembly "transpilers" I don't think there is any distinction left "Transpiler" is grating (apparently).