title: Why compiling into intermediate code?
body: <p>Why do Actionscript, Java, C#, etc. compile into intermediate code?
  I'm aware of cross-platform benefits of using intermediate code.</p>
  
  <p>The question is: What is the benefit of compiling to intermediate code, compared to scripts (JS, Python, PHP, Perl, etc.) that are interpreted?</p>
  
  <p>Is it just for code obfuscation? Or what?</p>
  
  <p>In addition what is the benefit compared to compiling to native code?</p>