Re:HAL/S Syntax
by zeckalpha on Sunday June 19, 2022 @07:51PM
(#31804706)
Grace Hopper implemented the first and coined the term. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_compiler_construc...
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Except, that wasn't at all what we call a compiler; she just used the name compiler for something that clearly was not. Admittedly, she was first to use the name, but word coinage is not a thing we recognize as a fundamental achievement. Hal didn't call his thing a "compiler", but it clearly was one, by the modern definition.
(Its output was subroutine calls, but that is a matter for optimization. When your compiler has to fit in 1K machine words, you make compromises.)
In English "to compile" is defined as "produce (something, especially a list, report, or book) by assembling information collected from other sources." which seems like a good description of what A0 to A2 did.
It is a pity that when people started to build translators they didn't use that name but instead kept the now obsolete term "compiler".
Look up "etymological fallacy".
Words don't have a "true meaning" independent of how they are used.