[cfe-dev] "clang.org"

[Óscar Fuentes]

Alp Toker <alp at nuanti.com> writes:

>> Frankly, the 3.4 will be way "alpha" on Windows still due to byval,
>> RTTI and stuff...
>
> Hi Timur,
>
> Disagree strongly on this.
>
> The Windows build of clang 3.4 is absolutely production-grade in almost
> every area now. It's not a major problem if codegen isn't quite there
> yet as long as it's mentioned in the release notes.

Probably Timur is thinking on Clang as a compiler, as most Windows
developers who seek for a "ready-made" binary package do. On this
regard, Clang as a C++ compiler is far from being production-grade and
IMO a full notice warning people about this fact should be placed,
otherwise Clang reputation among the not-so-informed community of
Windows C++ programmers will suffer badly.

libClang is another matter altogether, but people interested on
libClang should have no problem rolling their own binaries.

> Compelling features like refactoring, the C SDK, Python API, static
> analyser -- nearly all the "exciting" features that set clang apart --
> are all production-grade on Windows and have been for some time.
>
> When it comes time to compile, there are plenty of commodity compilers
> out there that'll get the job done as a stopgap.

For those looking for a C++11 compiler on Windows there is gcc (from
MinGW, MinGW-64 and Cygwin projects) and no more, and even that suffers
from incomplete support for library-dependant features. VS2013 is
incomplete and riddled with bugs.

> clang 3.4 on Windows is something to announce and be proud of, not to
> hide away as 'alpha'

Keep in mind what your audience is and be sure to advertise the right
things, otherwise it will backfire.