Adobe’s iPhone Flash Compiler
Aditya Bansod (via John Gruber):
We created a new compiler front end that allowed LLVM to understand ActionScript 3 and used its existing ARM back end to output native ARM assembly code. We call this Ahead of Time (AOT) compilation—in contrast to the way Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR function on the desktop using Just in Time (JIT) compilation. Since we are able to compile ActionScript to ARM ahead of time, the application gets all the performance benefits that the JIT would offer and the license compliance of not requiring a runtime in the final application.
In other words, it’s regular compilation.
Yes, but since both are compilation, you need to be able to distinguish between the two.