Translators

The purpose of translators

2.5.1 Languages

Languages — Note 2 of 3

The need for translators

What you need to know

Computers can only execute machine code (binary instructions). Since programmers write code in high-level or assembly languages, a translator is needed to convert the source code into machine code. Without translators, programs written in languages like Python would not be able to run on a processor.

What to know

All programs must be translated into machine code before the processor can execute them.
Machine code is binary (0s and 1s) specific to a processor or family of processors.
High-level source code is translated by either a compiler or an interpreter.
Translators bridge the gap between human-readable code and processor-executable instructions.
Without translators, programmers would have to write in binary machine code directly.

Exam technique

Tip:'Why does the computer need to translate the code?' → The processor can only understand/execute machine code (binary). High-level code must be converted first.
Tip:BOTH compilers and interpreters translate high-level code to low-level instructions. Only the COMPILER produces an executable file. Only the INTERPRETER needs to translate every time the program is run.

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