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I think compiler is the wrong way to describe this. A computer program that translates between two different high level languages is typically called a language
by awolf 14y ago
I think compiler is the wrong way to describe this. A computer program that translates between two different high level languages is typically called a language translator.
- toni 14y agoThanks, I edited the title.
- tantalor 14y agoNot anymore, see Closure Compiler, CoffeeScript compiler, TypeScript compiler, dart2js compiler, and tons more: https://github.com/jashkenas/coffee-script/wiki/List-of-languages-that-compile-to-JS https://github.com/jashkenas/coffee-script/wiki/List-of-lang... It's pretty common now to call these "compilers".
- nostrademons 14y agoYeah, a compiler is anything that translates from one programming language to another. The definition of a "high level language" is muddy these days - is C a high-level language? It's a compiler target for Scheme, Haskell, Goo, Python, and many other programming languages these days. It's also a source language for gcc, Clang, and numerous other C compilers.
- ender7 14y agoThe technical term is "transpiler". However, people tend to use "compiler" interchangeably without much confusion.
- bitcrusher 14y agoWouldn't "preprocessor" be a more accurate description?
- ufo 14y agoNo. A preprocessor usually translates into the same or a very similar language.