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+# Compilation
+
+Bruijn can be compiled to John Tromp’s binary lambda calculus (BLC).
+
+BLC uses the following encoding:
+
+| term         | lambda | bruijn  | BLC              |
+|:-------------|:-------|:--------|:-----------------|
+| abstraction  | λM     | `[M]`   | 00M              |
+| application  | (MN)   | `(M N)` | 01MN             |
+| bruijn index | i      | `i`     | 1<sup>i+1</sup>0 |
+
+There are two modes of compilation:
+
+- **Bitwise** compiles to BLC and encodes every bit as 1 bit and pads
+  the last remaining byte: `bruijn -b path`
+- **ASCII** compiles to BLC and encodes every bit as 1 ASCII character
+  (`'0'`/`'1'`): `bruijn -B path`
+
+## Compilation overhead
+
+Typical compilation to BLC results in much redundant code, since every
+used function gets substituted and translated separately. In
+`((+3) + (+4) + (+3))`, for example, `add` gets compiled to BLC two
+times, resulting in a redundant overhead of around 3500 bits.
+
+This is because BLC was never intended for compilation of normal
+programs, but mainly as an academic encoding model. This also means that
+it’s quite good for writing very expressive and minimal programs
+(i.e. obfuscated code golfing, see [John Tromp’s
+IOCCC](https://ioccc.org/2012/tromp/hint.html)).
+
+Most programs, however, won’t be golfed and can result in rather large
+compiled programs. While there’s not really any practical need for
+compilation aside from golfing, you could still use the
+[BLoC](https://github.com/marvinborner/bloc) project to optimize
+redundant terms.
+
+Typical workflow:
+
+``` bash
+$ bruijn -B program.bruijn | bloc --from-blc -i - -o out.bloc
+$ cat input | bruijn -E <(bloc --from-bloc -i out.bloc)
+```