The Python compiler can output working code just fine. It takes either a Lisp structure (COMPILE) and generates a code object in memory, or takes a text file (C

The Python compiler can output working code just fine. It takes either a Lisp structure (COMPILE) and generates a code object in memory, or takes a text file (COMPILE-FILE) and generates a FASL file. This has absolutely nothing to do with the runtime, except perhaps for COMPILE-FILE's need to read and write a file which ultimately needs to go through a syscall in the runtime. But the compiler is not even partially written in C. (And considering that Python originated as part of the CMUCL project in the mid-80's era of Lisp machines which didn't even include any C code whatsoever, writing even a part of Python in C would have been a curious design decision back then.)