[LLVMdev] Adding fields in a already built type? (2)

[Stéphane Letz]

Le 15 juin 2010 à 21:14, Chris Lattner a écrit :

> 
> On Jun 15, 2010, at 11:51 AM, Stéphane Letz wrote:
> 
>>> Nope, types are immutable once created.  The only thing you can do is "refine" opaque types to other types.  There is a section in the programmer's manual on this:
>>> http://llvm.org/docs/ProgrammersManual.html#TypeResolve
>>> 
>>> -Chris
>> 
>> 
>> So I succeeded  in using a "PATypeHolder" for the "opaque" type, define a Type* with PointerType::getUnqual, prepare a field,  then use " refineAbstractTypeTo " to built the real type with this added field.
>> 
>> The thing is that I would need to do that repeatedly, that is progressively adding fields, generates code that access those ready fields, and "refine" the type step by step.
>> 
>> Is that even possible?
> 
> It would work, but sounds really inefficient.  What are you really trying to do here?
> 
> -Chris


inefficient : do you mean because all users of the refined type would have to be "notified" ?

The reason is that our code generator generates a struct (progressively adding fields) and generates code that access this struct (that is : the fields that are already added). If we cannot create the struct progressively, then we have to define a pass to build the complete struct, then define a second pass to generate the code. If we can simply create the struct progressively at LLVM level, then it make our code simpler.

Thanks

Stéphane Letz