[LLVMdev] RFC: Staging area proposal for new backends

[Duncan Sands]

Hi Justin,

> On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 10:21:57AM -0400, Justin Holewinski wrote:
>> On Sat, Jul 21, 2012 at 8:08 PM, Chris Lattner <clattner at apple.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Jul 20, 2012, at 8:51 AM, Tom Stellard wrote:
>>>> The goals of the staging area will be:
>>>>   1. Facilitate communication between the LLVM project and backend
>>>>      developers
>>>>   2. Ensure that new backends meet LLVM standards
>>>>   3. Give the backend more exposure to users and prospective developers
>>>
>>> FWIW, I really like this idea or concept, but we have to be careful for it
>>> to be done right. This is also more general than just backends:
>>> experimental optimizers and runtime libraries can also benefit from
>>> something like this.
>>>
>>>> ++ Staging Area:
>>>>
>>>> Similar to the Linux kernel, the staging area for new backends will
>>>> be in the main LLVM tree, with building of the backend being disabled
>>>> by default.
>>>
>>> Makes sense.  Them being in the main tree isn't a problem as long as they
>>> aren't built by default, tested in buildbots, etc.
>>>
>>
>> So will new back-ends be allowed to begin development in the "staging
>> area?"  Let's say I want to develop a new back-end.  Would I be able to
>> start writing it in the LLVM main tree, or does it need to progress to a
>> certain point in an external repository first?

personally I would say it should be mostly developed out of tree, and the
staging area is only for helping get it into the main branch once it is
looking good (just like the linux kernel's staging tree).

Ciao, Duncan.