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# 1.3 Execution

Onyx code is never compiled, nor is it preprocessed by the interpreter. Onyx code is simply consumed. This has some interesting implications, some of which are not typical of even other interpreted languages:

- If a source file is modified during interpreter execution, the changes may affect the currently running program, usually in unpleasant ways.
- Syntax errors are not discovered until the malformed code is scanned. In order to be sure that there are no syntax errors, a source file must be completely scanned.

In practice, these are only minor inconveniences, but it is important to keep them in mind when developing.