The DICT Development Group

  Compiler \Com*pil"er\ (k[o^]m*p[imac]l"[~e]r), n. [OE.
     compiluor; cf. OF. compileor, fr. L. compilator.]
     1. One who compiles; esp., one who makes books by
        compilation.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Computers) a computer program that decodes instructions
        written in a higher-level computer language to produce an
        assembly-language program or an executable program in
        machine language.
        [WordNet 1.5 +PJC]

  compiler
      n 1: a person who compiles information (as for reference
           purposes)
      2: (computer science) a program that decodes instructions
         written in a higher order language and produces an assembly
         language program [syn: compiler, compiling program]

  compiler
  
      A program that converts another program
     from some source language (or programming language) to
     machine language (object code).  Some compilers output
     assembly language which is then converted to machine
     language by a separate assembler.
  
     A compiler is distinguished from an assembler by the fact that
     each input statement does not, in general, correspond to a
     single machine instruction or fixed sequence of instructions.
     A compiler may support such features as automatic allocation
     of variables, arbitrary arithmetic expressions, control
     structures such as FOR and WHILE loops, variable scope,
     input/ouput operations, higher-order functions and
     portability of source code.
  
     AUTOCODER, written in 1952, was possibly the first primitive
     compiler.  Laning and Zierler's compiler, written in
     1953-1954, was possibly the first true working algebraic
     compiler.
  
     See also byte-code compiler, native compiler, optimising
     compiler.
  
     (1994-11-07)