compiled

Once the ClojureScript is compiled to JavaScript, the JS can be executed by the browser (which of course involves an additional JIT compilation step).

There is very little visibility as to how the code is compiled - i.e should I use a list or a tuple for some things?

AOT-compiled Lisp generally retains the type info you need at runtime in one way or another.

If you're into Web development and have a background with compiled languages, test systems, and/or the embedded space, let's talk!

So even if your source code doesn't take data-dependent time, the compiler may make the compiled output take data-dependent time.

One possibility: what if you used a version of libfreetype or similar, compiled via emscripten, and run it on the client?

Many years ago I contacted the author and instead of giving me the source he gave me compiled binaries:(.

And of course, that only works if you're using the package unmodified; the source you link to has to be the source you compiled.

I believe up to VB5, then in VB6 it was finally natively compiled.

By contrast, Clojurescript (essentially the same language, but compiled to JS instead of JVM bytecode) can run in something like Node.js, where startup times are considerably faster.

More and more programmers likely get their feet wet doing JS/PHP on some site or other, and bring their rapid iteration thinking from there on to compiled projects.

Couldn't it be compiled to asm.js and loaded ahead of time if so desired?) I think we agree on most of this and I apologize.

A server-side compiler already exists, which is what you would use if you wanted Emacs/Slime support, or if you were developing a "real" Web application for deployment, because in that case you would want to pre-compile to JavaScript on the server, and distribute the compiled JS to the client.