Meaning – The word compiler, refers to a small program, that converts a source program, into an executable program. Basically, the compiler is responsible for translating the program you write in a high level programming language (Java, C, C++, Python, etc.) into machine level language (0 and 1) that the computer can understand and execute.
The compiler essentially, breaks the main source program into smaller pseudo programs in order to speed up the compilation process, and it then saves the translated program, so that it can be executed when desired.
The compiler can work faster to slower, depending on various aspects, including the processing power of the computer and even the size of the source program itself.
Example of usage – “The compiler took a long time to translate the source program into an executable program, as the code was quite long, and the computer was not very powerful.”
