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> Also why do people invent a new word 'transpile' Not this ignorant myth again - it isn’t a new word, been in use since mid 60s. A transpiler is a form of com

> Also why do people invent a new word 'transpile' Not this ignorant myth again - it isn’t a new word, been in use since mid 60s. A transpiler is a form of compiler from high-level language to high-level language. A compiler didn't even originally translate, but just link. The same way ‘navy’ is a kind of blue but we can say navy and add a little more specific information. Nobody rails against navy saying ‘but it’s just a shade of blue!’

eru 4y ago
I didn't say 'transpiling' was a newly invented word.
- chrisseaton 4y ago
  I thought you asked? > Also why do people invent a new word 'transpile', when the old word already perfectly describes translating from one formal language into another? The answer is... the old word ('compiler') didn't mean what it does today, back in the 60s, when 'transpiler' was coined. Compiler with its current meaning isn't a much older word than transpiler - they're near contemporaries (50s and 60s). Before that a compiler meant a linker. Your criticism doesn't match up with the history.
  - eru 4y ago
    Ok, that makes sense. I had thought 'compiler' was from the 1950s and already had its modern meaning. Of course, if we had more rational vocabulary, we'd call them 'translators' instead. (In fact, that's what German does. Perhaps they coined their corresponding term a bit later, when things had already shaken out a bit more.)
  - serhart 4y ago
    That is absolutely not true. Just because early compilers acted more like linker/loader doesn't mean they used the word compiler to mean "linker". When the term was coined it absolutely meant translating mathematical formulas into machine code. Compiler very much had the same meaning it has today.
    - chrisseaton 4y ago
      Sorry that's not my understanding of the history - early compilers were more like what we'd call today template compilers - linking blocks of pre-defined machine code together.
      - serhart 4y ago
        Yes, that is very much what they were. However, they used the term compiler in very much the same way it's used today. It didn't mean something different. The concept of the "compiler" was to translate mathematical symbols (or predefined machine code representing that math) and later English like words into programs a machine could execute.

eru 4y ago

I didn't say 'transpiling' was a newly invented word.

chrisseaton 4y ago
I thought you asked? > Also why do people invent a new word 'transpile', when the old word already perfectly describes translating from one formal language into another? The answer is... the old word ('compiler') didn't mean what it does today, back in the 60s, when 'transpiler' was coined. Compiler with its current meaning isn't a much older word than transpiler - they're near contemporaries (50s and 60s). Before that a compiler meant a linker. Your criticism doesn't match up with the history.
- eru 4y ago
  Ok, that makes sense. I had thought 'compiler' was from the 1950s and already had its modern meaning. Of course, if we had more rational vocabulary, we'd call them 'translators' instead. (In fact, that's what German does. Perhaps they coined their corresponding term a bit later, when things had already shaken out a bit more.)
- serhart 4y ago
  That is absolutely not true. Just because early compilers acted more like linker/loader doesn't mean they used the word compiler to mean "linker". When the term was coined it absolutely meant translating mathematical formulas into machine code. Compiler very much had the same meaning it has today.
  - chrisseaton 4y ago
    Sorry that's not my understanding of the history - early compilers were more like what we'd call today template compilers - linking blocks of pre-defined machine code together.
    - serhart 4y ago
      Yes, that is very much what they were. However, they used the term compiler in very much the same way it's used today. It didn't mean something different. The concept of the "compiler" was to translate mathematical symbols (or predefined machine code representing that math) and later English like words into programs a machine could execute.