The first backend that I achieved self-hosting of Virgil was the JVM backend. I targeted version 5 classfiles. These classfiles are still accepted by JVMs but t

The first backend that I achieved self-hosting of Virgil was the JVM backend. I targeted version 5 classfiles. These classfiles are still accepted by JVMs but there have since been several significant additions to the format. In particular, classfiles are required to have stackmaps, which are pretty much a major distraction for me to add to my backend (so I haven't!). The second backend that I bootstrapped on was x86-darwin. That worked great for about 7 years, until Apple decided to deprecate first 32-bit, and now, I guess, x86 altogether. Thankfully I ported to x86-linux soon after, as that syscall ABI is solid as a rock. But you know, things keep changing. To keep up, I finally had to bite the bullet and write an x86-64-linux backend. And I guess at somepoint now arm64 if I ever want to work natively on a mac again. It's an endless cycle. Thankfully now, emulators are pretty good, but I am still struggling with getting QEMU to run fast on MacOS on the M1, so it's just more futzing with enormous emulation stacks just to run old stuff.