[gambit-list] scheme on llvm

Harold Ancell hga at ancell-ent.com
Fri Jul 31 13:43:24 EDT 2009


At 09:52 AM 7/31/2009, Bradley Lucier wrote:

>On Jul 31, 2009, at 7:57 AM, Harold Ancell wrote:
>
>>>On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 9:50 PM, Bradley  
>>>Lucier<lucier at math.purdue.edu> wrote:
>>>>The last time I compiled the Gambit-generated C code with LLVM  
>>>>(which
>>>>wasn't so long ago) gsi failed at startup.  (I know this isn't what
>>>>you're referring to, but I presume the LLVM compiler may have the
>>>>same difficulties compiling the LLVM intermediate representation.)
>>
>>Hmmmm; I assume you used the gcc front end instead of Clang?
>
>I don't know what distinction you're trying to make; I got the C  
>compiler from llvm.org this summer and used it to compile the C files  
>in the Gambit distribution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LLVM#Front-ends

or http://tinyurl.com/lqvy33

  Front-ends

  LLVM was originally written to be a more aggressive,
  higher performance system for the existing GCC stack, and
  many of the GCC front-ends have been modified to work with
  it.  ... [ It uses ] front-ends derived from version 4.0.1
  and 4.2 of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC).

  However, widespread interest in LLVM has led to a number
  of efforts to develop entirely new front-ends for a
  variety of languages. One that has received the most
  attention is clang, a new compiler supporting C, Obj-C and
  C++. Primarily supported by Apple, clang is aimed at
  replacing the C/Obj-C compiler in the GCC system with a
  modern system that is more easily integrated with IDEs,
  and has wider support for multithreading. [ It also is
  a better code base for Obj-C work. ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clang#Overview

or http://tinyurl.com/nlblw9

  Clang was designed from the start to be threaded and aims
  for reduced memory footprint and increased speed. As of
  October 2007, clang compiled the Carbon libraries well
  over twice as fast as GCC, while using about five times
  less memory and disk space.

And the clang/LLVM new code base, made with the hindsight of
gcc development, is a lot more tractable.  One day maybe
it'll be practical for Gambit-C and finding and fixing
regressions won't be in the style of the poking at it with
sticks that I gathered from reading your "fun with gcc" bug
reports recently.

                                        - Harold




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