What term refers to the high level code of an application before it is translated into machine code?

The term that refers to the high-level code of an application before it is translated into machine code is known as source code. This is the original code written by a programmer in a programming language like Python, Java, or C++. It is human-readable and contains the logic and instructions that define the behavior of the application.

Source code must be transformed into machine code for a computer to execute it. This transformation is typically done through a compiler or an interpreter, depending on the programming language used. By focusing on the high-level code while writing programs, developers can easily manage and refine software logic before it is converted to the lower-level machine language, which is specific to the hardware and less understandable to humans.

The other terms are used in different contexts: executable code refers to the machine code that the computer can run; compiled code typically refers to source code that has already been translated into machine code through a compiler; and bytecode is an intermediate form of code that is typically generated by compilers for languages such as Java and is executed by a virtual machine rather than directly by the hardware.