Translators

• What do translator programs do?


  Takes code from a high level language (eg. Python) and makes it into machine code.
• What do compilers do?

  Translate source code into object code.
• Describe the features of a compiler.

  • compiler is only held in RAM for the time that it takes to translate source code into object code
  • translates lines one after the other but does not execute a line immediately after translation
  • once created, object code can run independently of development environment and translator software
  • if the object code file contains errors, the program will crash or cause unexpected output. Programmers must revisit source code, identify and correct errors and recompile
• What do interpreters do?

  Translate source code directly into machine code.
• Describe the features of an interpreter

  Each line is converted to machine code one at a time - executed as soon as it's translated.

  
  

  interpreter software present in main memory during execution of program and execution of every line

  
  

  won't translate the next line if there's an error - will stop instead and notify user

  
  

  useful tool to help programmers identify and fix errors - but can't determine actual error, can only indicate the line where something went wrong.