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Exactly. There's no reason a compiler should take any input but the source (maybe some config) nor have any output but the translated code. There's no dependence on running on a particular piece of hardware in this equation. Just run the codegen for platform Y on platform X.

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Wouldn't it need to link to native libraries, and thus require you to have all those around too?

Sure, I guess in the 10,000 foot view those look like source code :). But there's no fundamental reason you can't have libraries for platform X merely present on a platform Y system, it's just inconvenient today. That's the point I'm really trying to get at.

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