> The term is commonly used to mislead people into believing that a certain piece of software is not a compiler, so that knowledge about compilers does not apply to it.
Why would people use a word that has the word "compiler" in it to try to trick people into thinking something is not a compiler? I'm filing this into "issues not caused by the thing that is being complained about".
Apparently nobody has ever said to you, "No, it's not a compiler, it's a transpiler," which makes you a luckier person than I am. People know less than you think.
I don't even understand why someone would say that. What's the point in asserting that something isn't a compiler? Not that I doubt that this really happens, but I don't know what saying something "isn't a compiler" is meant to prove. Is it meant to downplay the complexity of a transpiler?
Obviously I believe transpilers are compilers. A cursory Google search shows that the word transpiler is equated to "source-to-source compiler" right away. If it truly wasn't a compiler, didn't have a true frontend and really did a trivial syntax-to-syntax translation, surely it would only be a translator, right? That is my assumption.
But all that put aside for a moment, I do stand by one thing; that's still not really an issue I blame on the existence of the word transpiler. If anything, it feels like it is in spite of the word transpiler, which itself heavily hints at the truth...
Why would people use a word that has the word "compiler" in it to try to trick people into thinking something is not a compiler? I'm filing this into "issues not caused by the thing that is being complained about".