Compilation

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Shnap is an interpreted language, which means that:

1. First, the code is parsed into an Abstract Syntax Tree
2. Second, the code is executed

That first step can significantly slow down any language, so Shnap offers a 'compiled' format, which is basically just an encoding of the abstract syntax tree. This compiled format is faster to load, so it can increase performance. The interpreter has a flag for compiling. A compiled Shnap script uses the extension cshnap, while a Shnap archive has the extension sar (see file extensions).

The cshnap (compiled shnap) format:

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