Writing a JIT and a disassembler are completely separate topics than emulating a system, don't you agree? :D (The article only talks about structuring a system emulator.)

The disassembler is my next step, since it's the easiest to tackle. Swapping binja for a custom solution on the existing code would be relatively straightforward.

The JIT is a completely different beast, it's essentially the IR -> codegen steps of a compiler (meaning without parsing, syntax/lexical analysis, object generation). Seeing as I wanted to target both x86_64 and aarch64 hosts, using an existing solution would get me started faster before I eventually write my own.

My plan is to split the JIT backends and keep cranelift for x86_64 support, but have my own aarch64 JIT also.

You have to pick your battles and assign priorities, you cannot re-invent everything at once.

(Author here)