Why am I writing a JavaScript toolchain in Zig?

The author is developing a new JavaScript toolchain named Jam using Zig, motivated by the potential for improvement in developer tooling. Jam aims to enhance the JavaScript ecosystem by providing a static analyzer, formatter, and code optimizer. The author critiques existing tools like ESLint for their limitations in analyzing source code and proposes that a more advanced open-source tool could significantly benefit developers. Key features of Jam include lossless, cache-efficient syntax trees, data-flow aware intermediate representation (IR) for code optimization, and compile-time AST query processing. The author emphasizes the importance of performance and aims to create a tool that minimizes overhead while maintaining usability. The roadmap includes adding JSX and TypeScript support, developing a source-to-source optimizer, and creating a TypeScript type checker. The author acknowledges the challenges of building Jam from scratch but believes that some ideas merit a fresh implementation. They also express a commitment to contributing to existing tools while pursuing their vision for Jam.

- The new JavaScript toolchain, Jam, is being developed in Zig to improve existing developer tools.

- Jam will feature a static analyzer, formatter, and code optimizer, addressing limitations in current JavaScript tooling.

- The tool aims to utilize advanced techniques like cache-efficient syntax trees and compile-time query processing for better performance.

- The roadmap includes support for JSX and TypeScript, along with a focus on creating a fast and efficient type checker.

- The author is committed to contributing to existing tools while pursuing their vision for Jam.