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Compiler, Interpreter

Object: 07

Compiler, Interpreter from Harwood YoHa on Vimeo.


Date of origin: 1949
Author/inventor/context: Grace Hooper

Compilers and interpreters are software that perform a one way encoding of human-readable (source) code into machine executable (binary) code. This process was original purposed with removing the congenital link between the assembly language machine instructions used to define a piece of software and a single hardware architecture. The compiler’s position within a technical infrastructure enables the abstraction and positioning of code as an operational object. In doing so it creates the conditions for high-level programming languages to become pervasive, which encourage collaborative practices and code sharing, whilst also commodifying code and labour by, amongst other processes, obfuscating and optimising code into portable binary packages.

Gareth Foote