I mean that there are successive steps to transform the entire code into tokens, the tokens into an AST, and the AST into some intermediary or final form.
True compilation to binary runs about 100x faster.
No, it doesn’t. Take a look at any of the number of projects that have attempted to compile Java to native code over the years. You’d be lucky to see any substantive gain at all. They sometimes have a use for packaging everything up in a single distributed binary, but you don’t do it for speed.
Things like C and Rust are fast because the language semantics can be compiled in a fast way.
I mean that there are successive steps to transform the entire code into tokens, the tokens into an AST, and the AST into some intermediary or final form.
No, it doesn’t. Take a look at any of the number of projects that have attempted to compile Java to native code over the years. You’d be lucky to see any substantive gain at all. They sometimes have a use for packaging everything up in a single distributed binary, but you don’t do it for speed.
Things like C and Rust are fast because the language semantics can be compiled in a fast way.