[cfe-dev] Bitwidth attribute in clang

[Nadav]

Hi Steve,

I enjoyed watching your presentation from the devmtg. It was very good.

I started with a different solution. I added a new 'unsigned bitwidth'
member to the BuiltinType. If it is set to zero then the default type
behaviour is used, otherwise the bitwidth field is used. With this
implementation I don't have to implement the signed/unsigned float/int
behaviour details.
Would this also work ?

I have another question,  For this code :
typedef int int4 __attribute__((bitwidth(4)));

I added a handle for the new attribute. From the handle I am given a
"TypedefDecl" object. From this I would like to get the definition of
the new type ("int4") and change it. However, the getUnderlyingType()
API returns the Type object for *int. I could not find the API to get
the Type object for "int4".


Thank you,
Nadav


On Fri, Aug 8, 2008 at 2:35 PM, Steve Naroff <snaroff at apple.com> wrote:
>
> On Aug 8, 2008, at 2:49 AM, Nadav wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I am working on adding attribute support for arbitrary integer bit
>> width for clang. This is useful for hardware synthesis where smaller
>> integers translate to smaller circuits.
>>
>> There is a similar open bug against llvm-gcc which explains this.
>> http://llvm.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=1284
>>
>> Example:
>> typedef int int5 __attribute__((bitwidth(5)));
>>
>> I followed efriedma's 51577 patch and added the new attribute syntax
>> without a problem.
>> http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project?view=rev&revision=51577
>>
>> I wanted to consult with the list on the best way to implement this.
>> It looks like the current type classes cannot support arbitrary
>> bitlength integers. The BuiltinType class supports only the standard
>> types (UChar, UInt, Int, etc).  Would you suggest deriving another new
>> type from Type (similar to complex, pointer, etc). After I do this I
>> will have to change many other places in the code.
>>
>
> To create the new type, you will have to modify Type, ASTContext, and Sema
> (ProcessDeclAttribute). See VectorType/ExtVectorType for a couple types
> created from attributes. Once the type is created, you will need to hack
> Sema for type checking/analysis.
>
>> Is there another better way to implement this ?
>
> Not really...you have the right idea.
>
> snaroff
>
>>
>>
>> Thank you,
>> Nadav Rotem
>> _______________________________________________
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>> cfe-dev at cs.uiuc.edu
>> http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/cfe-dev
>
>



-- 
Cheers,
 Nadav