Random Dart question - how is the standalone Dart VM implemented? What is it written in, is there a bytecode, etc?
And is there a place where more details are available?
And is there a place where more details are available?
There is bytecode, but the story here is kinda complicated - there are actually 2 different versions: one is called DBC and is used during development of Flutter applications on iOS, there is another called KBC - that one is more like a classical bytecode, it is currently in development.
> And is there a place where more details are available?
You can get some high level information at https://mrale.ph/dartvm
Let me know if you want to know something special.
I haven't heard of this. Why another bytecode version? Increased performance?
KBC is an experiment in this space where you have a more classical interpreter which tiers up into native JIT. In KBC mode bytecodes are also given to VM rather than generated internally inside the VM like DBC does.
Theoretically KBC should have better startup latency than just JIT (because you can start executing code immediately, rather than spending time to generate native code) and peak performance that matches JITs - because it tiers up into JIT.