Autocoder

Autocoder was the name given to certain assemblers for a number of IBM computers of the 1950s and 1960s. The first Autocoders appear to have been the earliest assemblers to provide a macro facility.

The term autocoder needs to be distinguished from autocode, a term of the same era which was used in the UK for languages of a higher level. Both terms derive from the phrase automatic coding, which referred generally to programs which eased the burden of producing the numeric machine language codes of programs. ("Autocoding" is seen occasionally, and can refer to any kind of programming system.) In some circles "autocoder" could be used in a rather generic way to refer to what is now called a macro-assembler.