Translator (computing) in the context of Machine code

A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to execute. It is one component of software, which also includes documentation and other intangible components.

A computer program in its human-readable form is called source code. Source code needs another computer program to execute because computers can only execute their native machine instructions. Therefore, source code may be translated to machine instructions using a compiler written for the language. (Assembly language programs are translated using an assembler.) The resulting file is called an executable. Alternatively, source code may execute within an interpreter written for the language.

In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is human readable plain text that can eventually result in controlling the behavior of a computer. In order to control a computer, it must be processed by a computer program – either executed directly via an interpreter or translated into a more computer-consumable form such as via a compiler. Sometimes, code is compiled directly to machine code so that it can be run in the native language of the computer without further processing. But, many modern environments involve compiling to an intermediate representation such as bytecode that can either run via an interpreter or be compiled on-demand to machine code via just-in-time compilation.

In computing, a compiler is software that translates computer code written in one programming language (the source language) into another language (the target language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that translate source code from a high-level programming language to a low-level programming language (e.g. assembly language, object code, or machine code) to create an executable program.

There are many different types of compilers which produce output in different useful forms. A cross-compiler produces code for a different CPU or operating system than the one on which the cross-compiler itself runs. A bootstrap compiler is often a temporary compiler, used for compiling a more permanent or better optimized compiler for a language.

A disassembler is a computer program that translates machine language into assembly language—the inverse operation to that of an assembler. The output of disassembly is typically formatted for human-readability rather than for input to an assembler, making disassemblers primarily a reverse-engineering tool. Common uses include analyzing the output of high-level programming language compilers and their optimizations, recovering source code when the original is lost, performing malware analysis, modifying software (such as binary patching), and software cracking.

A disassembler differs from a decompiler, which targets a high-level language rather than an assembly language. A fundamental method of software analysis is disassembly. Unlike decompilers, which make attempts at recreating high-level human readable structures using binaries, disassemblers are aimed at generating a symbolic assembly, meaning it's attempting to reconstruct the assembly closest to its executions. Disassembled code is hence normally more accurate but also lower level and less abstract than decompiled code and thus it can be much more easily analyzed.

In computer programming, a directive or pragma (from "pragmatic") is a language construct that specifies how a compiler (or other translator) should process its input. Depending on the programming language, directives may or may not be part of the grammar of the language and may vary from compiler to compiler. They can be processed by a preprocessor to specify compiler behavior, or function as a form of in-band parameterization.

In some cases directives specify global behavior, while in other cases they only affect a local section, such as a block of programming code. In some cases, such as some C programs, directives are optional compiler hints and may be ignored, but normally they are prescriptive and must be followed. However, a directive does not perform any action in the language itself, but rather only a change in the behavior of the compiler.