Sad to hear that the compiled JS isn't going smoothly. Good luck on the C front.
The toolchain to compile the Espruino firmware is not painful at all, though (I barely swore at all while setting it up) - so I think almost anything would be more painful to set up ;-)
Espruino is a JavaScript interpreter for low-power Microcontrollers. This site is both a support community for Espruino and a place to share what you are working on.
Yes - although it's going to be just as painful (probably more painful!) than the toolchain you need to build the Espruino firmware...