[LLVMdev] getting started with IR needing GC

[Jonathan S. Shapiro]

On Mon, 2008-04-28 at 12:28 -0400, Gordon Henriksen wrote:

> However, GC lowering happens just before code generation... Therefore,
> the most optimal output is probably be achieved by propagating
> knowledge about the GC model into the front-end, emitting simple loads
> and stores when allowed by the GC.

Given the current infrastructure, I concur, but the appropriate
selection of GC is target and application dependent, so one does not
want to bind this decision too tightly. Embedding knowledge in the front
end is a very tight binding indeed.

It isn't an immediate problem for us, and one fine solution would be for
us to move the lowering into the front end down the road as Chris has
suggested. I asked mainly because if there was a way to dodge the
premature decision binding problem up front, it seemed worthwhile to do
so.


shap