title: What's preventing python from being compiled?
body: <p>I understand that Python is an interpreted language, but the performance would be much higher if it was compiled.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>What exactly is preventing python from being compiled?</li>
  <li>Why was python designed as an interpreted language and not a compiled one in the first place?</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Note: I know about <code>.pyc</code> files, but those are bytecode, not compiled files.</p>