LLVM
Gregor Richards
Richards at codu.org
Mon Nov 20 14:37:23 PST 2006
John Reimer wrote:
> On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 13:41:28 -0800, Chad J
> <gamerChad at _spamIsBad_gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Craig Black wrote:
>>
>>> LLVM (http://llvm.org/) is a backend for compilers. It is portable
>>> to many platforms, well documened, and actively developed. It seems
>>> that they are making great progress with it.
>>> A crazy idea. Has anyone considered using LLVM with D's front end?
>>> I know Walter has his own back end, but it's seems hard for one guy
>>> to maintain both a front and back end, and do a good job at both.
>>> Even a programming god like Walter. If we had the LLVM team
>>> actively developing and innovating the back end, then Walter could
>>> focus on innovating the front end and the D language. Just a thought.
>>> -Craig
>>
>>
>> Hmmm... looks like they are working on an ARM backend. This could be
>> nice. If they get that ARM backend done by say, summer of next year,
>> and the D front-end is plugged in, then I might be willing to take a
>> crack at making ARM work on that one in addition to GDC. Then I
>> could decide which one is nicer to work with and focus on that. Kind
>> of a longshot though (they'd need wince support too).
>>
>> Admittedly the current arm-wince-pe GDC I put together has some uh
>> ...annoyances... and I've no idea how to solve them.
>>
>> Now I wonder, is Walter really maintaining the backend much? I
>> thought that part of dmd was pretty solid already and he is just
>> focusing on the front-end and other D affairs.
>>
>> What would impress me is if the main development of D would occur on
>> this LLVM compiler, or at least be readily portable to it within
>> hours or a few days (this assumes LLVM is a good quality backend that
>> Walter wouldn't mind switching to). The utility I am looking for
>> there is having a bleeding-edge D compiler that is also very
>> retargetable, and doesn't require big man-hours to be maintained as
>> it seems gdc does. DMD is great on windows, but it is fairly useless
>> on my pda since, well, it doesn't even generate code for that at all!
>
>
>
> I'm wondering if Walter will have the same source "tainting" issue with
> LLVM as he did for gcc. I wish not because it would be much better if
> the reference compiler development could continue on a completely open
> system.
>
> -JJR
I have now posted this at least three times.
LLVM's compiler is GCC.
- Gregor Richards
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