[LLVMdev] Thinking about "whacky" backends

[Nate Fries]

Cameron Zwarich wrote:

> What benefit do you get from having a backend here rather than an interpreter for LLVM IR?
The same thing as an interpreter, just a native build (no need for an interpreter program, better speed, etc).

This would be beneficial anywhere that "build once, deploy anywhere" functionality is desired, without resorting to using a higher-level language like C# or Java.
Granted, the application that either interprets or compiles and links the resulting bitcode application would still be required on the system, much like a VM for this language; but for developers not familiar with such languages and either no particular desire or very little time to become familiar with them, this would be an excellent solution.

That said, it seems like it ought to be possible to do the same thing by emitting bitcode for all supported platform/arch combinations and compressing them in an archive, then decompressing and either interpreting or JIT-compiling the appropriate bitcode for the platform. This would just be a more flexible means to that same end.