Software Design by Example in Python 25: A Virtual Machine

In the end, you return to the beginning. This book started by showing learners how to implement objects and classes as dictionaries. Chapter 25: A Virtual Machine shows how to build a VM and translate assembly code into binary instructions for it. I don’t try to explain how those instructions might be implemented in hardware, but I hope anyone who has stuck with me this far will come away from this chapter with a better understanding of how languages like Python work. For those who want to go deeper, there is always Nystrom’s excellent Crafting Interpreters.

Terms defined: Application Binary Interface, assembler, assembly code, bytecode, conditional jump, disassembler, instruction pointer, instruction set, label (of address in memory), op code, register (in hardware), virtual machine, word (of memory).