Is it hard to write a fast JIT for a language that distinguishes between NULL and Int32=0

[Ben Harper <rogojin@...>]

I'm sort of targeting Mike Pall in this question, but maybe there are other VM/JIT experts hanging out here who can answer my question.

Looking at the initial Dart spec, I see that the language allows an Int or a Double to have the value NULL, which is distinct from zero. My guess is that this single feature makes it much harder to write a performant JIT/Compiler for the language.

Is this true?

Thanks,

Ben