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At the point where we are calling things that compile to assembly "transpilers" I don't think there is any distinction left, much less a useful one. I mean the classic notion of a compiler is a program that turns things into assembly, which is then taken into machine code by an assembler.

I agree with you that we've lost though: no amount of protest is going to make people stop using the word "transpiler".

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A compiler is a program that turns programs in a source language into equivalent programs in a target language.

It is generally assumed that a compiler goes from high level to low level, a decompiler low-to-high and a transpiler high-to-high. I guess in this case the transpiler is low-to-low, so maybe "transpiler" is just used to mean "samey-to-samey"

Isn't "low-to-low" typically called static recompilation or binary translation esp. in emulation circles?

That is correct but we are not talking in the context of the emulation circles.

A compiler is a program that translates programs from one language to another.

> At the point where we are calling things that compile to assembly "transpilers" I don't think there is any distinction left

"Transpiler" is grating (apparently).

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