Interesting. My first compiler experience, 40 years ago, could reasonably be considered nanopass. This was the IBM Fortran IV compiler on an 11/30 clone. IIRC,

Interesting. My first compiler experience, 40 years ago, could reasonably be considered nanopass. This was the IBM Fortran IV compiler on an 11/30 clone. IIRC, the code to compile was kept in the minuscule memory, while dozens of passes were pulled in from disk to move slowly from source to machine code. As a bonus, you could usually gauge how far you'd progressed by watching the pattern of the blinkenlights.