If we can get to the point of EMULATING a whole-@$$ computer on the device, maybe, just maybe, that device was slightly capable of running a compiler a looooooooooooooooong time ago.
There are compilers on the App Store, e.g. https://holzschu.github.io/a-Shell_iOS/ — however it’s compiling to WebAssembly and then running that, but the compiler is still native...
As said in another reply thread[0], I booted Windows 95 on a first gen ipad almost a decade ago using bochs, hence the sarcasm re: Xcode finally being the proverbial straw for GP.
But to run a compiler you’d have to be able to see files, and as we all know, Apple-customers find things like that very, very scary.
Edit: I’m sarcastically referring to Apple’s original justification for not making files a concept on iOS, and thus I’m mocking Apple’s condescending judgement of its own users, not the actual users themselves. I thought that much would be obvious.