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by hristov 3919 days ago
That is called a compiler.
2 comments
poizan42 3919 days ago
Transpilers are compilers... The term is usually used for a compiler which compiles between languages at about the same level of abstraction.
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cwp 3919 days ago
The term is usually used by people that don't know what compilers are.

Snark aside, I think this is actually the case. I bet there are a LOT of CoffeeScript/Javascript developers who have never worked in a compiled language.

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pjmlp 3919 days ago
A term that I only started seeing after the crazyness to compile to JavaScript started and a part of my major was compiler design.
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monochromatic 3919 days ago
Eh, it isn't starting with source code.
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poizan42 3919 days ago
In the broadest sense a compiler is any program that translates between different representations af a program. In that sense one can also consider a decompiler as a compiler.

Also we usually use the term compilation (or more specifically Ahead Of Time and Just In Time compilation) for when we translate bytecode into machinecode.

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monochromatic 3919 days ago
Well, sure. I'm just saying that calling this something more specific than "compiler" isn't wrong.
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