Like Stefan said, static compilation has been possible for years, just not very user friendly. We've been working on making compilation easier here: https://github.com/JuliaLang/PackageCompiler.jl
> does this involve bundling all of Julia w/llvm and all?
Yeah, more or less. It involves bundling the julia runtime shared library (no different than a C++ program needs access to the C++ runtime library, except that usually comes pre-installed), and all its dependencies, which yes, includes llvm and all.
A far-off goal is to be able to shave off the pieces of the runtime you don't need, such as LLVM if everything is precompiled, FFTW if your program isn't doing heavy linear algebra, etc.
And we have a package for building complete, standalone, desktop applications out of the compiled code, here: https://github.com/NHDaly/ApplicationBuilder.jl
> does this involve bundling all of Julia w/llvm and all?
Yeah, more or less. It involves bundling the julia runtime shared library (no different than a C++ program needs access to the C++ runtime library, except that usually comes pre-installed), and all its dependencies, which yes, includes llvm and all.
A far-off goal is to be able to shave off the pieces of the runtime you don't need, such as LLVM if everything is precompiled, FFTW if your program isn't doing heavy linear algebra, etc.