We're not going to get into a functional vs. imperative discussion I hope ;-) So if Python makes a .pyc file that's not pollution but gcc making an a.out is?

We're not going to get into a functional vs. imperative discussion I hope ;-) So if Python makes a .pyc file that's not pollution but gcc making an a.out is? How about we create a RAM disk, compile into that, and dispose of it after we're done? A compiler is a process that takes source code as input. You simply need to draw your circle a little larger. The reality is that the lines are blurry, definitely more blurry today then they were in 1998 (that paper that was referred to). They are blurrier because computers are faster and with more storage, compile is now more of a continuum with JIT and there are many languages that straddle multiple categories. I've used C for "scripting", e.g. a "quick and dirty" parse some files and spit out some results and I use Python for "production" style very large applications. C++ has become more expressive and safer but I'm not sure what we get by saying it's a "scripting language".