This is probably sending myself on a dark and dangerous path, but I wonder how hard a compiler is to write if you don't care very much about optimization.
@wolfcoder In this case I'd be targeting a VM specifically made to have C map onto it cleanly so most things wouldn't have much room to improve anyway if done right, but peephole optimization would still be smart.
@NovaSquirrel a compiler that doesn't optimize is still a compiler and is the first step towards making one that does optimize.