[LLVMdev] Should llvm include a linker?

[David Chisnall]

On 29 Jan 2015, at 19:05, Greg Fitzgerald <garious at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I'd think you'd see value when new languages get off the ground faster
> because they don't need to think about linking.  Dealing with all the
> subtle differences between the various system linkers is no fun.
> Maybe that's not a ton of value, but as I mentioned, the integration
> is not a ton of work either.

I think that you're conflating two issues:

- Should there be a set of libraries that allow language developers to turn IR into executables / shared libraries easily?

- Should these libraries be part of the core LLVM repository?

I don't think anyone will disagree with the first one.  I believe that lld aims to provide such libraries and I hope to be able to use them.  The question is whether these need to be part of the core LLVM distribution.  The C front end isn't, yet there's equally an argument that using the clang libraries makes implementing an FFI for a new language easier.

David