Il sistema A-0, creato nel 1952 da Grace Hopper, è ampiamente considerato il primo compilatore. It translated a sequence of subroutines and arguments, specified by a mathematical notation, into machine code. This was a foundational step in moving from low-level assembly programming to higher-level, more abstract programming languages, automating the tedious process of manual code translation. Early programming languages research, such as the A-0 System, guidato to the high-level languages used today.

















