[cfe-dev] Exception handling on Windows

[Sebastian Redl]

Bill Baxter wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 6:55 AM, Sebastian Redl
> <sebastian.redl at getdesigned.at> wrote:
>   
>> Bill Baxter wrote:
>>     
>>> Howdy there,
>>> I'm big user of the D programming language (www.digitalmars.com/d).
>>> Some folks are working hard on an LLVM-based D compiler, but they are
>>> saying they're stuck on Windows, because LLVM doesn't support Windows
>>> SEH for C++ exception handling.
>>>
>>> So what does clang do about exception handling on Windows?  Or is
>>> clang also not available on Windows?
>>>
>>>       
>> Clang completely relies on LLVM when it comes to handling issues like that.
>> If LLVM doesn't support Win32 (or Win64) unwinding, then Clang doesn't
>> either.
>>     
>
> I see.  So clang isn't really usable on Windows right now then?
>   
I suppose the C part is about as usable as on Linux. The Objective-C 
part is as usable as you'd expect from an Objective-C compiler under 
Windows. The C++ part is too incomplete to be usable anywhere.
>> (I don't think Clang supports exception codegen at all at the
>> moment. At least, it doesn't fully support parsing C++ exception
>> constructs.)
>>     
>
> I presume this is something the clang devs would like to address eventually?
> A C++ compiler without exception handling is hardly a C++ compiler.
>   
Of course. But C++ is big.
> A slightly different question -- any idea how many developers are
> actively working on clang and how many are actively working on the
> core parts of LLVM that clang relies on?
>
> My impression is that LLVM is a pretty big project with some nice
> corporate backing.  But maybe the actual amount of activity is less
> than I'm thinking...   I'm just surprised that something like
> exception handling is working yet.  Or maybe it's just that none of
> the devs or corporate backers are interested in Windows?
>   
The main corporate backer of LLVM is Apple. Do the math. :-)

 From my time on the mailing list, I think there's around 12 regular 
contributors to Clang, in various areas. The C++ part is mostly done by 
three people (Doug, Argiris, and me). Of those, I believe Doug is the 
only one who works on this as part of his job. I'm not sure about 
Argiris. I'm just a student working on Clang as a hobby.

Sebastian