Definition: disassembler

Software that converts machine language back into assembly language. Since there is no way to determine the human thinking behind the logic of the instructions, the resulting assembly language routines and variables are named and numbered sequentially (A001, A002, etc.). Disassembled code can be very difficult to maintain in its original state; however, the code can be manually renamed for future maintenance. See decompiler.

 Hypothetical          Hypothetical
 Human-Written         Machine-Created
 Assembler Code        Disassembler Code

 start in  quant       R001 in A001
       if  quant>100        if A001>100
       goto bigorder        goto R002
       print "end"          print "end"
       stop                 stop