The Factor programming language's VM is being ported from C++ to Zig, with early benchmarks showing 8–22% performance improvements across compiler tests, core tests, and the benchmark suite. The Zig port uses the same bootstrap process and is fully compatible with existing Factor image files. The Zig VM is 67% more lines of code but consolidates into fewer files, and produces a 77% larger binary. Next steps include Windows support, graphical program launching, compressed image support, and potentially exploring WASM execution or a simpler Factor interpreter.
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