Eli5: If a compiler is a program that converts your code into binary form for the computer, unless my understanding is incorrect and it isn’t just a program, wouldn’t the compiler also need a compiler to run it since how do you run a program without a compiler?

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Eli5: If a compiler is a program that converts your code into binary form for the computer, unless my understanding is incorrect and it isn’t just a program, wouldn’t the compiler also need a compiler to run it since how do you run a program without a compiler?

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Compiler needed a compiler to compile – a lot of compilers can actually self-compile. But once that’s done, they’re now in binary, and no longer need a compiler.

Essentially, your code does get turned into binary, but unless you change the code, you can keep reusing the same binary. That’s what you do with most anything that runs on your computer, including compilers.

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