Build Impossible Programs
I just wanted to share that everything jvns is saying here is true.<p>In 2014, for the Google Summer of Code program, I applied to build a JIT compiler for the MoarVM virtual machine. (It is actually more correct to speak of my work as a JIT backend than a full-fledged compiler - the &#x27;frontend&#x27; of the compiler was already under development when I started). At the time, I knew just short of nothing about compilers, let alone JIT compilation. So what I did instead was learn, and make lots and lots of mistakes.<p>And it worked. The JIT backend I created has been in production since 2014, with a new backend since 2017, and a small (but thriving) community of contributors. It is far from the worlds most advanced JIT compiler, but it does provide a nice speedup on real-world perl 6 programs. All the while I&#x27;ve continued learning.<p>So... definitely try ambitious things :-)