Definition of compiler

The word "compiler" originated in the 18th century from the Latin "compilare," which means "to gather together" or "to compile." In the early 19th century, the term was used to describe a person who compiled information, such as a book compiler or a dictionary compiler. In the 1940s and 1950s, the term "compiler" began to be used more specifically in the context of computer programming. A compiler was a program that translated source code written in a high-level programming language into machine code that could be executed directly by a computer. The first computer compiler was likely the Assembly Compiler developed by Konrad Zuse in the 1940s. The development of the Fortran compiler in the 1950s further popularized the term, and since then, the concept of a compiler has become a fundamental part of computer science. Today, compilers are used to develop software for a wide range of platforms and applications.