Compilers stanford

What compiler does?
A compiler is a special program that translates a programming language's source code into machine code, bytecode or another programming language.
The source code is typically written in a high-level, human-readable language such as Java or C++..
What language are compilers written in?
A very simple compiler can be written from an assembler and machine code.
Once you have a software that is able to translate something into binary instructions, you can use the original compiler to write a more sophisticated one (then use a second further refined one to write a third and so on)..
Why should we study compiler?
Often compilers for computer programming languages are written in their own language.
This is less true now that so many compilers are based on complete compiler production systems such as LLVM.
LLVM is written in C and C++ but has compilers for a huge portfolio of languages..
A compiler is a software that converts the source code to the object code.
In other words, we can say that it converts the high-level language to machine/binary language.
Moreover, it is necessary to perform this step to make the program executable.

Learning something about compilers will show you the interplay of theory and practice in computer science, especially how powerful general ideas combined with engineering insight can lead to practical solutions to very hard problems.

Compilers stanford

What compiler does?

What language are compilers written in?

Why should we study compiler?