[LLVMdev] C Backend's future

[David A. Greene]

Chris Lattner <clattner at apple.com> writes:

> On Nov 5, 2010, at 7:11 AM, Kirk Kelsey wrote:
>
>> I'm wondering what the longer term plans are for the C Backend. I
>> understand it's not actively developed, even deprecated. What I'm not
>> clear about is whether it's something that is viewed as non-vital and
>> should just as well go away, or if it's just a low
>> priority. Basically: it's not improving, but is it likely to
>> disappear?
>
> I don't know of anyone actively working on it, and that means it isn't likely to improve anytime soon.

I have quite a few patches for it queued up.  Vector code is a problem
since the C backend currently generates aligned vector loads of
unaligned data.

> In short, I don't see a compelling reason to rip it out anytime soon.
> If it ends up being completely broken for simple programs, it might
> make sense to remove in the future.

There's a big reason to keep it.  It's a godsend when trying to bugpoint
something where no working llc is available.  I've used it quite a lot
during AVX development, for example.  It's useful for developing any
new target.

                             -Dave