You are correct, this is what I meant. I've found "self-interpreter" implementations that aim to be short https://arxiv.org/html/cs/0311032 https://arxiv.org/

You are correct, this is what I meant. I've found "self-interpreter" implementations that aim to be short https://arxiv.org/html/cs/0311032 https://arxiv.org/html/cs/0311032 https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/585/self-interpreting-interpreter https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/585/self-interp... But I haven't found anyone yet that optimized for actual number of recursive implementations on a real machine.