> Bytecode interpreters don’t work on the AST directly. They work on preprocessed ASTs. This simplifies the execution model and can produce impressive speed win

> Bytecode interpreters don’t work on the AST directly. They work on preprocessed ASTs. This simplifies the execution model and can produce impressive speed wins. Just executing off the parser is also a strategy. That's what some people[1] do, since you can get even more impressive speed wins by simply making small/dense programs. [1]: http://www.nsl.com/papers/origins.htm http://www.nsl.com/papers/origins.htm