The longer the delay between writing some chunk of code, and executing it, the more valuable mental context is lost. I find it way more productive to work in small chunks iteratively, testing as I go along, rather than writing for a long chunk of time, then running tests and figuring out what bugs are making tests fail.

I only compile a couple of times per day max usually. Sometimes I won't compile at all in a day.

Sorry I may have missed the sarcasm.

Your day job project takes half an hour to compile and you don't see the point in speeding that up?

It wasn't sarcasm. My "irrelevant" point meant "it's irrelevant for a factor in picking a language", as in "it doesn't significantly contribute to whether a project is possible in the long term".

If compile times are longer you just compile less often and write larger portions of code at a time and you generally keep writing code while it compiles.

Works when you've been using a minimal language like C for over a decade and you're an expert. For people learning a new language they constantly need to be recompiling to check their assumptions are correct, that's why it's so important for the masses.

If they're a new developer they're not going to be compiling a massive project over and over I would assume. They'd be writing small toys to learn the language.

GP did say it is a nice to have.

But also said that it's basically irrelevant. Hence my confusion.

Faster feedback loop is a much better development experience.

Hot code reloading is nice to have, but incremental compilation is essential. Your compiler has forsaken you if you have to wait 30 minutes for changes to compile.

Developers have to wait while your compiler runs. You’re paying your compiler at your engineer hourly rate, if you like. That’s very expensive!

I like knowing what compiler errors I've made in near real time feedback. Also useful for running tests on save.

That's something of a double edged sword here.

Somehow like having live orthographic checker always on while writing some prose: it can't easily distract the mind from focusing on the expression of ideas. And even if you try to ignore all these hints of early micro fixes, the brain is at very least spending resources at filtering avoidable noise.

Thus said, as long as this is an option that can easily switched, the possibility to limit notifications of these issues can be isolated into dedicated sessions.

I guess it might also greatly depend on each individual, how they appreciate to work, and how it impacts their workflow.