recompiling: (I should be able to answer this.) In the computer world the most common meaning of compiling is translating instructions for the computer (programs) from a language that a person can more easily understand and write to a language that a computer can more easily understand (one and zeros, machine language instructions).

Recompiling is the act of compiling a program again, after changing something to improve the program, solve a problem, or to allow it to operate on a different computer or operating system architecture.

Example: Programs written in some computer languages (C, C++, others) can run on Intel 80n86 computer architectures and Motorola (??) Power PC (PPC) architectures. However, the programs must be recompiled for each architecture.

(Come to think of it, I think this is the most common usage of the term recompile -- recompiling to switch architectures, and maybe the beginning of this definition should be modified to eliminate references to the other stuff (non-architecture switching related).)

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• RandyKramer - 03 Feb 2002
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