The other part of the answer is that currently JuliaInterpreter is really slow because it is a very naive interpreter. Speeding it up by a factor of 5 or so should be relatively easy if anyone wants to try.
I would not go as far as calling it very naive, there has certainly been some work put into optimizing performance within the current design.
There are probably some gains to be had by using a different storage format for the IR though as proposed in [1], but it is difficult to say how much of a difference that will make in practice.
There are probably some gains to be had by using a different storage format for the IR though as proposed in [1], but it is difficult to say how much of a difference that will make in practice.
[1] https://github.com/JuliaDebug/JuliaInterpreter.jl/pull/309