Real Time Recompilation of Running JavaScript
summary
Proof-of-concept recompiles running JavaScript without restarting the app, demoing live edits (the live demo trips in places). It generates functions with a direct eval injected compiler so closures and original call contexts survive, rewrites function declarations and named-function-expression rewrites via a parser, preserves arguments, and uses lazy cached recompilation to avoid constant eval overhead. Limitations: inserting new functions breaks the one-to-one mapping, injected compiler pollutes scope, and only reevaluated callbacks or functions pick up changes.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Introduction to recompiling
- 1:14Concept of live compilation
- 3:51Basic live coding demo
- 6:12Overcoming limitation challenges
- 8:25Handling function arguments
- 13:26Managing closures
- 18:11Function expressions and loops
- 23:15Performance and caching
- 26:22The 'indirect direct' trick
- 28:51Recap and open issues
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