what is compiled vertex arrays?

Thx for answering~

To my knowledge, it is outdated by VBO (vertex buffer object).

wow! you should read the opengl specification! everything will be much clearer! without understanding how opengl pipeline works, it is hard to advance in opengl programming! (and from the post you make, i think you havent read it).
but we help you if you dont understand anything anyways!

Originally posted by ZbuffeR:
To my knowledge, it is outdated by VBO (vertex buffer object).

No, it is outdated but not only by that. Some people told me CVA used other ways to improve performance.

In today transform & lighting accelerated world, those methods turned out to be pretty useless.

Forgive CVA.