> A perfect compiler would compile instantly (or at least faster than human perception is capable of registering) That seems lika a very arbitrary requirement.

> A perfect compiler would compile instantly (or at least faster than human perception is capable of registering) That seems lika a very arbitrary requirement. I'd say a perfect implementation of anything must do what it is supposed to be doing, and that may have a lower bound on processing time. You can't write to memory faster than what the bus allows, for example.