# spencertipping/jit-tutorial

How to write a very simple JIT compiler

Repository: https://github.com/spencertipping/jit-tutorial
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/jit-tutorial
Language: C
License Family: other
Last push: 2021-05-03T20:33:50+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3465, "days_push": 1948, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1935, forks 102 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:57.023230+00:00)

## What it is
A tutorial repository teaching how to write a very simple JIT compiler in C, walking through building an interpreter for a toy machine-code language and then generating native code at runtime. It uses a Mandelbrot-set emulator as the running example.

## Use cases
- learn how JIT compilers work
- understand dynamic code generation in C
- write a simple interpreter for machine code
- generate native machine code at runtime
- study executable memory and mmap-based code emission
- teach compiler internals with a minimal example

## When to choose
- you want a hands-on, minimal introduction to writing a JIT compiler
- you are comfortable with C and UNIX system-level programming
- you want a small educational codebase to study rather than a production tool

## When to avoid
- you need a production-ready JIT engine or library
- you want portable, optimized code generation across architectures
- you are new to systems programming and need more foundational material first

## Facets
- artifact type: learning-resource
- maturity: maintenance
- function: compiler, interpreter, developer-tools
- domain: compilers, tutorials, developer-tools, programming-languages
- platform: windows, cross-platform, cli
- tags: jit, dynamic-code-generation, tutorial, c, educational, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- spencertipping/jit-tutorial (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:57.023230+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:08:28.027048+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/spencertipping/jit-tutorial (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:57.023230+00:00, sha f2e790e9ac74)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.