[LLVMdev] MSIL backend

[Jeff Cohen]

Anton Korobeynikov wrote:
> 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.
>   

There is no existing front end that can support MSIL.  Do you plan on 
writing one?  And do you plan on it *not* supporting the other back ends?

>> 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.
>   

I still don't get what this is for.  You shouldn't need any win32 def 
files.  It is extremely unusual for a program running in the .NET 
environment to need direct access to the win32 API.  Most of the win32 
API has been wrapped in .NET framework classes (though without callvirt 
you can't use them).
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