JIT

Advanced 💻 Tech / IT

Definition

Just-In-Time compilation, where code gets translated into machine language right when it's needed rather than ahead of time—like cooking food only when the customer orders it. It's the performance optimization technique that tries to combine the flexibility of interpreted languages with the speed of compiled ones. When it works, it's magical; when it doesn't, your program runs slower than a snail doing calculus.

Example Usage

The JIT compiler optimized our hot code paths so aggressively that performance improved by 300%, and we have no idea how.

Source: Compiler and programming language terminology

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