Language Translators
It helps in converting programming languages to machine language.
The translated program is called the object code. Depending upon used programming languages, language translator is divided into three categories which are as follows
Assembler
It converts a program written in assembly language into machine language. Assembly language consists of mnemonic code, which are difficult to learn and are machine dependent.
Interpreter
It converts a HLL program into machine language by converting it line-by-line. If there is any error in any line, it stops the execution of the program immediately and reports to the user at the same time. Program execution cannot resume until the error is rectified by the user. Interpreter is very useful for debugging and suitable for novice programmer. This is a slow process and consumes less memory space.
Compiler
It converts HLL program into machine language, which can be understood by the processor. For each high level language, the machine requires a separate compiler. A compiler creates a unique object program, i.e. if a source program is compiled, there is no need of that source program because output can be obtained by executing that object program. Compiler converts the entire HLL program in one go and reports all the errors of the program alongwith the line numbers.