This seems to be grasping for analogies to make sense of the work this person was doing.

A compiler does a lot more than source code translation.

There are specifications that tell us the de jure specifications of the language, if there is one, and then we have to recognize the de facto implementations of said language. The often disagree and leave much on the table. Some times on purpose, such as implementation details, and other times by omission.

Users of this compiler expect a deterministic compilation of the source text into the target code but it’s rarely 1:1. There are optimization passes, inlining, barriers, etc.

And then there are the run-time effects of executing a program!

I think the analogy gets a little weak because natural language is not a precise enough language to specify discrete systems.

What it sounds like the author is doing is bypassing decision points with other people and delaying making decisions themselves until the LLM agent forces them to? Which is a fine approach but I don’t think the analogy with a compiler is necessary.

People seem to have a hard enough time understanding branch prediction and thread barriers.