[Patient0]

I've always thought that this would be a better definition of what a "compiler" is vs what an "interpreter" is:

A compiler, if asked to "execute" itself a million times will generate code that is still reasonably fast.

An interpreter, if asked to "execute" itself a million times, will generate code that is a million times slower.

[robinh]

Theoretically, one could write an interpreter specifically for the purpose of nesting other interpreters, which would then (nearly) remove itself from memory as it transfers control to the second interpreter, but I know I'm not quite insane enough to start working on such a thing.