First Compiler

……First Compiler

Definition of a compiler

A compiler is a special program that processes statements written in a particular programming language and turns them into machine language or "code" that a computer's processor uses. The approach taken to compiler design is affected by the complexity of the processing that needs to be done, the experience of person or persons designing it and the tools available.

The first compiler was written by Grace Hooper, in 1952 for the A-0 programming language. The A-0 system converted the specification into machine code that could be fed into the computer a second time to execute the program. The A-0 functioned more as a loader or linker than the modern notion of a compiler. A program was specified as a sequence of subroutines and arguments. The subroutines were identified by a numeric code and the arguments to the subroutines were written directly after each subroutine code.

Early compilers were written in assembly language. The first self compiling-capable of compiling its own source was created for Lisp by Hart and Levin in 1962. However, the C compiler, developed by Dennis Richie is considered as the complete compiler.