The Basics of Compilation

Compilation can be roughly described as a process of translating instructions written in a higher-level programming language to a low-level machine code. This allows us to create our applications using abstract concepts such as classes and objects and not bother with the tedious details of processor-specific assembly languages. We don't need to work directly with CPU registers, think about short or long jumps, and manage stack frames. Compiled languages are more expressive, readable, and secure, and foster more maintainable code (but are still as performant as possible).

In C++, we rely on static compilation—an entire program has to be translated into native code before it is executed. This is an alternative approach to languages such as Java or Python, which compile a program on the fly with a special, separate interpreter every time a user runs it. There are certain advantages to each method. The policy of C++ is to provide as many high-level tools as possible while still being able to deliver native performance in a complete, self-contained application for almost every architecture out there.