When we make changes to our C# code, it is automatically compiled when we switch back from our favorite IDE (which is typically either MonoDevelop or the much more feature-rich Visual Studio) to the Unity Editor. However, the C# code is not converted directly into machine code, as we would expect static compilers to do if we are using languages such as C++.
Instead, the code is converted into an intermediate stage called Common Intermediate Language (CIL), which is an abstraction above the native code. This is how .NET can support multiple languages—each uses a different compiler, but they're all converted into CIL, so the output is effectively the same regardless of the language that we pick. CIL is similar to Java bytecode, upon which it is based, and the CIL code is entirely useless on its own, as CPUs have no idea how to run the instructions defined...
