Ahead of Time Compilation of EcmaScript Code Using Type Inference

Abstract: To investigate the feasibility of improving performance for EcmaScript code in environments that restricts the usage of dynamic just in time compilers, an ahead of time EcmaScript to C compiler capable of compiling a substantial subset of the EcmaScript language has been constructed. The compiler recovers type information without customized type information by using the Cartesian Product Algorithm. While the compiler is not complete enough to be used in production it has shown to be capable of producing code that matches contemporary optimizing just in time compilers in terms of performance and substantially outperforms the interpreters currently used in restricted environments. In addition to constructing and benchmarking the compiler a survey was conducted to gauge if the selected subset of the language was acceptable for use by developers.