Translators

Programs written in a language similar to English

Python, Java, C#, HTML, SQL

Advantages

The commands use English keywords such as PRINT, INPUT, WHILE etc. which are easy to understand

Complex arithmetic can be performed in one instruction that would take many machine code instructions

They have in-built mathematical and logical functions to process the data

Machine code is the computer’s own programming language, made up of binary codes to represent the program or instructions.

There are 2 types of Translator

Compiler

Interpreter

A compiler translates the complete program (source code) into object code (machine code) in one go before the program is run.

Compiled programs run faster since there is no translation at run time.

It produces stand-alone machine code program which runs by itself without the need for the source code and the compiler

An interpreter translates and executes source code programs one statement at a time into machine code while the program is run

It will run more slowly than a compiled program due to executing the program one line at a time.

Execution will stop immediately if the interpreter translates a line of source code that results in an error making it easier to spot errors in the code

Use an interpreter when debugging code

Once code is error free, use a compiler.