Science Fact of the Day - November 16, 2000

Science Fact of the Day
Thursday November 16, 2000

Compilers

In computer science, a compiler is a special type of program that translates high-level computer languages into the low-level instructions that the CPU (central processing unit) understands. In the early days of computers, they were programmed using assembly language, in which each line of a program corresponded to a trivial operation, such as retrieving a number stored in memory, adding two numbers together, or comparing them.

Then, along came the higher level languages such as C, C++, Pascal, Fortran, Cobol and others, which were developed because writing assembly code was tedious -- involving the programmer in many nitty-gritty details that could be figured out automatically. In a high level language, a single statement might correspond to a concept such as "repeat this operation until the count is higher than 10," which might translate into many lines of assembly. Early compilers generated code that was not as efficient as that which could be written by hand, but modern optimizing compilers are often able to figure out "tricks" that are beyond the reach of all but the most skilled hand-coders.

- Michael Natkin

Slow day, huh Jake?


DerFarm

1. Yes.
2. Where did you get my name?

[barrk]

Look at your signature....

[kovan]

heheh
that was so hard to figure out

out for the day
nite

Damn! The codes been broken! I must tell INS.

[barrk]

Those damn hackers.

[kedaman]

BTW, how high is the level of programming languages in the future? Computers probably compile English language as if they were instructions in a very highlevel language

Well actually no, computer languages consist of only 5 command, they are...

1. 110100101
2. 110010110
3. 100101101
4. 101001010
5. 100101100

And Windows has gotten so complicated that its a command line O/S now.

[kedaman]

the only IO devices i have is a telegraph 0/1 switch, and a lightdiod, i guess it's as hightech as anything can get.

[parksie]

I have to hold my hand on the circuits and tell what the output is by how electrocuted I get

[tumblingdown]

i did that the other day on a power supply. The fan started making this god awful racket, so i took the case of to see what it was, plugged in, and accidentaly touched the soldered pins on the circuit board where the 240 comes in.

It hurt.


td.

[parksie]

Let's chip in and buy td a new hand

[tumblingdown]

cheers mate.


td.