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I was reading a discussion about C++'s failings and virtues (mostly the failings, but some people like it), and now I'm wondering-- why isn't there translation between computer languages?
I'm not a programmer, but from what I can gather my instincts for what can and can't be done by computers are fairly good.
In theory, all usable computer languages are Turing equivalent.
Afaik, the reason we don't have good machine translation for natural languages is that natural languages are highly and non-obviously contextual. Also, sometimes even authors aren't quite sure what they mean.
If all computer languages are logically equivalent (except, I suppose, for how deep they go into the hardware) and they aren't ambiguous, what's the problem?
Speaking of instinct, I don't know whether not very technical answers to my question are possible. The only thing I'm sure of is that computer translation between computer languages is remotely feasible, it would have happened by now.
I'm not a programmer, but from what I can gather my instincts for what can and can't be done by computers are fairly good.
In theory, all usable computer languages are Turing equivalent.
Afaik, the reason we don't have good machine translation for natural languages is that natural languages are highly and non-obviously contextual. Also, sometimes even authors aren't quite sure what they mean.
If all computer languages are logically equivalent (except, I suppose, for how deep they go into the hardware) and they aren't ambiguous, what's the problem?
Speaking of instinct, I don't know whether not very technical answers to my question are possible. The only thing I'm sure of is that computer translation between computer languages is remotely feasible, it would have happened by now.
