[boomlinde]

> because languages are specification

It just so happens that the specification in this case makes very specific demands on the translation environment, closely describing compilation step by step from source files into a program image.

Your "interpreted C" is only C in the loose sense that one may describe other non-compliant but roughly similar implementations.

[sigjuice]

Why doesn’t the standard just say this explicitly? The last time I looked at it the word “compile” just appeared once in a footnote.

[boomlinde]

> Why doesn’t the standard just say this explicitly?

It does say it explicitly, just using other terminology than "compile" (opting instead for "translate"). See e.g. 5.1.1 in C99.