[llvm-dev] LLVM Newbie

[Renato Golin via llvm-dev]

On 25 April 2016 at 22:00, Wolfgang McSneed via llvm-dev
<llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to write my own backend using LLVM and I downloaded the support
> files from the book titled "LLVM Cookbook" for the "Toy" architecture
> described in the book.
>
> I made the changes described in the book to register the TOY architecture
> but am seeing compile errors. I am not sure if I set this up correctly. The
> code that I am compiling for the backend was downloaded from the publisher
> and should be tested? (I think they used 3.5 whereas I am using 3.8.0)

Yeah, that book is old enough and the content, mainly based on current
code, doesn't age well. :)

However, it should still contain the general ideas, but you'll have to
dig the code more deeper than you would a few years ago.

You could try the official document:

http://llvm.org/docs/WritingAnLLVMBackend.html

or an old but very thorough experiment (probably same age as the book):

http://jonathan2251.github.io/lbd/
http://jonathan2251.github.io/lbd/TutorialLLVMBackendCpu0.pdf

Or this tutorial:

http://llvm.org/devmtg/2014-04/PDFs/Talks/Building%20an%20LLVM%20backend.pdf

Or, as Bruce said, you could use 3.5.

A good rule of thumb is, if you're serious about LLVM, grab ToT and
suffer the initial impact. It's not that big. If, OTOH, this is just
for fun, or a side project, use and old but sure version, and spend
more time on the core of your project.

cheers,
--renato