C++ compilers (at least on most current code bases that don't need modules) still need to parse and lex headers though -- so actual executable code is pretty ra

C++ compilers (at least on most current code bases that don't need modules) still need to parse and lex headers though -- so actual executable code is pretty rare. Most compilations are also debug builds which don't optimize(but creating debug information can also be slow; the really slow step is usually linking)