Virtual machines rule the world of programming right now: The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) are perhaps the two best-known, but Python, Ruby, and Chrome’s V8 engine (powering Chrome and NodeJS) are all also virtual machines, and between those five, we have most of the world covered. But how do these machines work? On what principles do they operate? In short, how are they built? In this session, we will explore that idea by – believe it or not – building a simple, working virtual machine that won’t be good for much, but will reflect many of the same principles that all of the aforementioned ones use.