r202559 - Add Clang docs about MSVC compatibility

[Reid Kleckner]

Author: rnk
Date: Fri Feb 28 17:46:04 2014
New Revision: 202559

URL: http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project?rev=202559&view=rev
Log:
Add Clang docs about MSVC compatibility

This documents some of the status of supported functionality in MSVC
quirks mode.  Some of this should be in
http://clang.llvm.org/compatibility.html instead when things have
stabilized.

Added:
    cfe/trunk/docs/MSVCCompatibility.rst
Modified:
    cfe/trunk/docs/index.rst

Added: cfe/trunk/docs/MSVCCompatibility.rst
URL: http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project/cfe/trunk/docs/MSVCCompatibility.rst?rev=202559&view=auto
==============================================================================
--- cfe/trunk/docs/MSVCCompatibility.rst (added)
+++ cfe/trunk/docs/MSVCCompatibility.rst Fri Feb 28 17:46:04 2014
@@ -0,0 +1,121 @@
+.. raw:: html
+
+  <style type="text/css">
+    .none { background-color: #FFCCCC }
+    .partial { background-color: #FFFF99 }
+    .good { background-color: #CCFF99 }
+  </style>
+
+.. role:: none
+.. role:: partial
+.. role:: good
+
+==================
+MSVC compatibility
+==================
+
+When Clang compiles C++ code for Windows, it attempts to be compatible with
+MSVC.  There are multiple dimensions to compatibility.
+
+First, Clang attempts to be ABI-compatible, meaning that Clang-compiled code
+should be able to link against MSVC-compiled code successfully.  However, C++
+ABIs are particular large and complicated, and Clang's support for MSVC's C++
+ABI is a work in progress.  If you don't require MSVC ABI compatibility or don't
+want to use Microsoft's C and C++ runtimes, the mingw32 toolchain might be a
+better fit for your project.
+
+Second, Clang implements many MSVC language extensions, such as
+``__declspec(dllexport)`` and a handful of pragmas.  These are typically
+controlled by ``-fms-extensions``.
+
+Finally, MSVC accepts some C++ code that Clang will typically diagnose as
+invalid.  When these constructs are present in widely included system headers,
+Clang attempts to recover and continue compiling the user's program.  Most
+parsing and semantic compatibility tweaks are controlled by
+``-fms-compatibility`` and ``-fdelayed-template-parsing``, and they are a work
+in progress.
+
+ABI features
+============
+
+The status of major ABI-impacting C++ features:
+
+* Record layout: :good:`Mostly complete`.  We've attacked this with a fuzzer,
+  and most of the remaining failures involve ``#pragma pack``,
+  ``__declspec(align(N))``, or other pragmas.
+
+* Class inheritance: :good:`Mostly complete`.  This covers all of the standard
+  OO features you would expect: virtual method inheritance, multiple
+  inheritance, and virtual inheritance.  Every so often we uncover a bug where
+  our tables are incompatible, but this is pretty well in hand.
+
+* Name mangling: :good:`Ongoing`.  Every new C++ feature generally needs its own
+  mangling.  For example, member pointer template arguments have an interesting
+  and distinct mangling.  Fortunately, incorrect manglings usually do not result
+  in runtime errors.  Non-inline functions with incorrect manglings usually
+  result in link errors, which are relatively easy to diagnose.  Incorrect
+  manglings for inline functions and templates result in multiple copies in the
+  final image.  The C++ standard requires that those addresses be equal, but few
+  programs rely on this.
+
+* Member pointers: :good:`Mostly complete`.  Standard C++ member pointers are
+  fully implemented and should be ABI compatible.  Both `#pragma
+  pointers_to_members`_ and the `/vm`_ flags are supported. However, MSVC
+  supports an extension to allow creating a `pointer to a member of a virtual
+  base class`_.  Clang does not yet support this.
+
+.. _#pragma pointers_to_members:
+  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/83cch5a6.aspx
+.. _/vm: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yad46a6z.aspx
+.. _pointer to a member of a virtual base class: http://llvm.org/PR15713
+
+* Debug info: :partial:`Minimal`.  Clang emits CodeView line tables into the
+  object file, similar to what MSVC emits when given the ``/Z7`` flag.
+  Microsoft's link.exe will read this information and use it to create a PDB,
+  enabling stack traces in all modern Windows debuggers.  Clang does not emit
+  any type info or description of variable layout.
+
+* `RTTI`_: :none:`Unstarted`.  See the bug for a discussion of what needs to
+  happen first.
+
+.. _RTTI: http://llvm.org/PR18951
+
+* Exceptions and SEH: :none:`Unstarted`.  Clang can parse both constructs, but
+  does not know how to emit compatible handlers.  This depends on RTTI.
+
+* Thread-safe initialization of local statics: :none:`Unstarted`.  We are ABI
+  compatible with MSVC 2012, which does not support thread-safe local statics.
+  MSVC 2013 changed the ABI to make initialization of local statics thread safe,
+  and we have not yet implemented this.
+
+* Lambdas in ABI boundaries: :none:`Infeasible`.  It is unlikely that we will
+  ever be fully ABI compatible with lambdas declared in inline functions due to
+  what appears to be a hash code in the name mangling.  Lambdas that are not
+  externally visible should work fine.
+
+Template instantiation and name lookup
+======================================
+
+In addition to the usual `dependent name lookup FAQs `_, Clang is often unable
+to parse certain invalid C++ constructs that MSVC allows.  As of this writing,
+Clang will reject code with missing ``typename`` annotations:
+
+.. _dependent name lookup FAQs:
+  http://clang.llvm.org/compatibility.html#dep_lookup
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+  struct X {
+    typedef int type;
+  };
+  template<typename T> int f() {
+    // missing typename keyword
+    return sizeof(/*typename*/ T::type);
+  }
+  template void f<X>();
+
+Accepting code like this is ongoing work.  Ultimately, it may be cleaner to
+`implement a token-based template instantiation mode`_ than it is to add
+compatibility hacks to the existing AST-based instantiation.
+
+.. _implement a token-based template instantiation mode: http://llvm.org/PR18714

Modified: cfe/trunk/docs/index.rst
URL: http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project/cfe/trunk/docs/index.rst?rev=202559&r1=202558&r2=202559&view=diff
==============================================================================
--- cfe/trunk/docs/index.rst (original)
+++ cfe/trunk/docs/index.rst Fri Feb 28 17:46:04 2014
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ Using Clang as a Compiler
    LeakSanitizer
    SanitizerSpecialCaseList
    Modules
+   MSVCCompatibility
    FAQ
 
 Using Clang as a Library