[LLVMdev] MSIL backend

[Anton Korobeynikov]

Hello, Jeff.

> I'm confused.  A MSIL front end I can understand, but a back end?  How 
> will it be used?  The GCC-based front ends that come with LLVM generate 
> bytecodes that have dependencies on the GCC runtime, which is not going 
> to be present in a .NET environment.
Well. It's LLVM-to-MSIL translator. So, if the source use some
unsupported code... The same situation was for ages with llvm-gcc and
CBackend, if system compiler is gcc 3.4.x. Generated C code contains gcc
4.x-specific builtins. I don't see anything wrong about this. LLVM
wasn't designed as completely portable.

> Some people have the official Microsoft files :)
We cannot use them :)

> As it's apparent the developer does not have Visual Studio, how do you 
> assemble and run the MSIL code?  Do you use the utilities present in the 
> .NET framework at all?
Yes. Just MSIL "assembler". There will be some documentation "How to use
MSIL backend" in the nearest future.

> That you would need to rely on Mingw32 implies you do not.
There won't be any files from external sources. Just clean instructions
"how to get and use them". I think some amount of .def files won't hurt
anyone.

-- 
With best regards, Anton Korobeynikov.

Faculty of Mathematics & Mechanics, Saint Petersburg State University.