Is there a better approach for experimenting with filesystems than editing the kernel sources, recompiling and then running in a VM? e.g. A C library providing

Is there a better approach for experimenting with filesystems than editing the kernel sources, recompiling and then running in a VM? e.g. A C library providing the necessary interface for the sources to drop into a kernel eventually, but also allowing you to run tests, set breakpoints, etc within an IDE. Of course you can get a long way accessing a block device directly with FUSE, but ultimately you end up developing a FUSE library, not something you can use within the kernel.