[llvm-dev] TargetMachine vs LLVMTargetMachine

[Hal Finkel via llvm-dev]

On 10/02/2017 10:57 PM, Matthias Braun via llvm-dev wrote:
> The distinction between the LLVMTargetMachine and TargetMachine 
> classes has become somewhat muddy recently. So I created:
>
> https://reviews.llvm.org/D38482
>
> to clean things up. During review it was noted that we may rather 
> merge the two instead which looks like this:
>
> https://reviews.llvm.org/D38489
>
> We really should choose one of the two over the status quo. Some 
> points for the discussion:
>
> - I am not aware of any target that is actually implementing 
> TargetMachine only but not LLVMTargetMachine (I assume the C backend 
> used to do it before it was removed)
> - Even when merging the two, I believe it is still possible to 
> implement a target without linking to lib/CodeGen by returning nullptr 
> for the various methods related to CodeGen.

If this is true, then it seems like we don't lose anything from doing 
this (and the code gets cleaner). We don't currently have anything in 
tree that motivates the current split. It does seem useful to retain the 
ability to have a direct-from-the-IR backend (mostly for translation 
into another IR).

  -Hal

> - The split would give some notion of an internal CodeGen interface 
> and an external interface visible to frontend/middleend etc.
> - The code gets simpler when merging the two and we have to 
> document/explain less.
>
> - Matthias
>
>
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-- 
Hal Finkel
Lead, Compiler Technology and Programming Languages
Leadership Computing Facility
Argonne National Laboratory

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