I think the problem is they haven't set up tools to make it really quick. Even if the compilation only takes a few seconds, they are probably switching to a shell, firing of a make command, maybe restarting the server etc. All stuff that could (and should) be automated and available at the press of a keyboard button. In my emacs setup, any language that requires compilation I bind the key C-c C-c to "build the app now". So then compilation literally takes a few seconds not a few second plus ten seconds of overhead.