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a compiled language, yes. But the function of a compiler, between a compiled language and an interpreted language, remains the same. It translates code from one representation to another.

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This is really simple. Do you use V8 to compile your code or to run it?

Just because V8 has a compiler, doesn't make it a compiler. Do you see the difference?

V8 compiles code into bytecode and runs that. This is really simple.

V8 is a JIT compiler. It both compiles code and runs it. For your original complaint about not being able to compile JS up front, you're talking about Ahead-Of-Time (AOT) compilation. You don't seem very familiar with the relevant terminology.

In fact, I just looked it up and apparently V8 compiles JS directly to machine code rather than bytecode: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrome_V8.

V8 compiles to native code with the exception of low memory devices (512M or less), for which it has a (relatively recently introduced) bytecode compiler, so it uses an interpreter in that one case.

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