Oliver Medhurst
Creator of Porffor, an ahead-of-time JavaScript-to-WebAssembly compiler; former Mozilla contributor who worked on Firefox internals and the DOM, now focused on research and building Porffor.
Best podcasts with Oliver Medhurst
Ranked by the Snipd community
Oct 20, 2025 • 49min
Oliver Medhurst - Porffor - JavaScript Ahead of Time Compiler
Oliver Medhurst, the creator of Porffor, an ahead-of-time JavaScript-to-WebAssembly compiler, shares his fascinating journey from hobbyist to Mozilla contributor. He discusses the advantages of ahead-of-time compilation, tackling dynamic features, and the skepticism surrounding it. Oliver explains Porffor's TypeScript integration, benefits for serverless architecture, and how it addresses performance issues. He also touches on security benefits of WebAssembly and the future of JavaScript engines, highlighting ongoing optimizations and the evolving developer ecosystem.
Jul 16, 2025 • 31min
Exploring JavaScript Ahead-of-time Compilation with Porffor | WebAssembly Unleashed
Oliver Medhurst, a former Mozilla engineer, discusses his innovative project, Porffor, which compiles JavaScript ahead-of-time to WebAssembly and native binaries. He highlights the complexities of static compilation in JavaScript and the benefits of AOT, such as smaller binaries and faster startup times. Oliver shares insights on type inference, performance improvements over interpreters, and the importance of community feedback in refining Porffor. He also delves into garbage collection strategies and offers advice to aspiring AOT compiler builders.
