ohjelmointikääntöä

Ohjelmointikääntö refers to the process of translating source code written in a high-level programming language into a lower-level language, typically machine code or bytecode, that a computer can directly execute. This translation is performed by a program called a compiler. The original programming language is called the source language, and the target language is called the object language.

Compilers analyze the source code for syntax and semantic errors. If errors are found, the compiler reports them to the programmer, and the compilation process stops. If the code is error-free, the compiler generates the equivalent object code. This object code can then be linked with other pre-compiled code or libraries to form an executable program.

The primary benefit of compilation is that the resulting executable code runs much faster than interpreted code, where the source code is translated and executed line by line at runtime. However, compilation introduces an extra step in the development cycle, requiring a compilation phase before the program can be tested.

There are various types of compilers, including native compilers that produce machine code for a specific processor architecture, and cross-compilers that generate code for a different architecture than the one they are running on. Interpreters, on the other hand, execute code directly without producing a separate executable file, offering more flexibility during development but often sacrificing performance.