no dogma podcast #171 Andy Gocke, .NET Ahead of Time Compilation, Part 1
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Mar 30, 2023 Andy Gocke, the Lead of the native AOT and app model team at Microsoft, dives into the world of ahead-of-time compilation (AOT) in .NET. He discusses the evolution from traditional compilation to modern AOT techniques and contrasts it with Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation. Gocke highlights the importance of trimming for optimized applications and addresses challenges like compatibility with third-party libraries. He shares insights on AOT's potential in resource-constrained environments and its role in enhancing performance for .NET 8, making this a must-listen for developers!
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What is Ahead-Of-Time Compilation
- Ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation compiles the entire application to native assembly before runtime.
- This includes user code, .NET framework code, and all dependencies, bundled into a self-contained build.
Compilation vs Interpretation
- Compilation is translating source code to target language, while interpretation directly executes code.
- CPUs act as interpreters of machine instructions, so all code eventually is interpreted at lower levels.
.NET IL as a Portable Abstraction
- .NET Intermediate Language (IL) is an abstract, portable language that simplifies cross-platform execution.
- The runtime then compiles or interprets this IL to the specific machine code needed at runtime.