JavaScript arguably is the most widely-used "lambda language": first-class
functions play a central role in the language, and they form the basis for
its object system. Not only that: every JavaScript programmer uses concepts
like higher-order functions or continuation-passing on a daily basis,
without ever having heard those terms.
In this talk, I first give a quick intro into the good, the bad, and the
unfathomable of JavaScript, for the language geeks. Then I present some of
the technology that V8, Google's high-performance JavaScript VM, is using to
get performance out of this mess, namely just-in-time compilation, inline
caching, type feedback, dynamic optimization and deoptimization.