Disassemble vs. Decompile

[Mike_R]

I don't wish to open up a debate/discussion regarding Obfuscators and Native Image Generators / Protectors (although Dotfuscator and Salamander, respectively, look excellent).

 

However, the distinction between "Disassemble" vs. "Decompile" eludes me when these aspects are discussed. I'm guessing that:

 

(1) Assembly involves the translation of C#, VB.Net or the like into IL and that Disassembly would be the reverse.

 

(2) Compiling would be the translation of IL to native machine code by the JIT (or potentially by NGEN.exe). And Decompiling would be the reverse.

 

Is this right? (LOL, am I close?) The terms seem to be thrown about a bit loosely in various discussions, so either I have this wrong or some of these web sites are often not being careful about which word they are using.

 

Any help appreciated... :)