[llvm-dev] GSoC19: Improve LLVM binary utilities

[Jake Ehrlich via llvm-dev]

Hi Seiya,

What should I prioritize? I suppose that improving llvm-objcopy is the most
> crucial work in this summer.


This is an opinion that will vary a lot from person to person. At the top
of my list is improvements to llvm-objdump and working on MachO backends
for LLD and llvm-objcopy. The critical thing to avoid IMO is implementing
features without a direct use case in mind. I've let myself fall victim to
this mistake many times before. I would ask the community for improvements
they want to see and especially relay on your host to guide the direction
you take. If you and your host feel that llvm-objcopy is the most critical
then I certainly know some people and use cases that would be interested
and will respond to an email on llvm-dev asking what you could work on.
Several people have been adding bugs for llvm-objcopy recently and you
should be able to find things to do there.

How can I avoid proposing functionalities that others are already working
> on? It seems that the tools have been still actively developed.
>

The bug tracker is one way to look at this, people will say if they're
working on any open bugs there. In practice I found that if I have a real
use case and the feature I need hasn't been implemented, no one is likely
to be currently working on it. For bigger features you should email
llvm-dev. Many people are likely to have thought about how bigger features
should be implemented and there's a better chance that someone is already
actively working on things.

Are there good first issues related to the project? This is the first time
> for me to dig into the LLVM source code so currently I cannot show
> convincing evidence that I'm able to work on the project.


Well I have biased opinions. I'd like alignment to be better handled in
llvm-objdump, I'd like for symbol references to be resolved in an easier to
parse fashion, and for module and function offsets to be output in a way
that makes them easy to jump between.

On Tue, Mar 26, 2019 at 3:34 AM Seiya Nuta via llvm-dev <
llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> My name is Seiya Nuta. I'm studying for my master's degree in University
> of Tsukuba and interested in the project named "Improve LLVM binary
> utilities". I've skimmed through llvm-objcopy/llvm-objdump, commit logs,
> and Bugzilla to figure out what should I do.
>
> I have some questions about the project:
>
> - What should I prioritize? I suppose that improving llvm-objcopy is the
>    most crucial work in this summer.
> - How can I avoid proposing functionalities that others are already
>    working on? It seems that the tools have been still actively
>    developed.
> - Are there good first issues related to the project? This is the first
>    time for me to dig into the LLVM source code so currently I cannot
>    show convincing evidence that I'm able to work on the project.
>
> Best regards,
> Seiya
> _______________________________________________
> LLVM Developers mailing list
> llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org
> https://lists.llvm.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/llvm-dev
>
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