[tom_mellior]

> direct threaded code (DTC): a VM instruction is just a pointer to the C function implementing it.

Nitpick: This sounds more like subroutine threading than direct threading. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threaded_code

In subroutine threaded code, each function implementing an instruction returns before the next one is called. In direct threading, each code snippet implementing an instruction loads the next address and jumps to it directly without going through a return and another call.

[astrobe_]

It sounds like it, but it is not. It gets confusing fast when one talks about these things in even slightly accurate ways.

In DTC to call a function of the VM code (ie a another piece of DTC) you typically have a "call" virtual instruction, followed by the virtual address to call. you also have a virtual "return" function that pops the virtual instruction pointer from the virtual call stack.

Subroutine threaded is really just a very primitive form of AoT compilation.

[tom_mellior]

None of this explains why you think that your code in which "a VM instruction is just a pointer to the C function implementing it" is direct threaded. If you call a C function for each VM instruction, and that function returns before the next C function is called, then your threading is not direct.