Hi Duncan, >how do you compile a program with LLVM? It's not a compiler, it's a set of >optimization and codegen libraries. You also need a front-end, which takes >the users code and turns it into the LLVM intermediate representation [IR]. >The >dragonegg plugin takes the output of the gcc-4.5 front-ends, turns it into LLVM >IR and runs the LLVM optimizers and code generators on it. In other words, it >is exactly what you need in order to compile programs with LLVM. There is also >llvm-gcc, which is a hacked version of gcc-4.2 that does much the same thing, >and for C and C++ there is now the clang front-end to LLVM. The big advantage >of dragonegg is that it isolates the effect of the LLVM optimizers and code >generators by removing the effect of having a different front-end. For >example, >if llvm-gcc produces slower code than gcc-4.5, this might be due to front-end >changes between gcc-4.2 and gcc-4.5 rather than because the gcc optimizers are >doing a better job. This confounding factor goes away with the dragonegg >plugin.
Ok. I see what you mean. We simply used llvm-gcc so that's why the confusion ;) ... Cheers, Grigori
