| Kevin | 8e8f64e | 2007-10-06 21:28:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | <!-- Material used from: HTML 4.01 specs: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/ -->
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| Chris Lattner | 29754e6 | 2007-12-09 08:17:09 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 2 | <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
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| 3 | "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
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| Kevin | 8e8f64e | 2007-10-06 21:28:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 4 | <html>
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| 5 | <head>
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| Chris Lattner | 29754e6 | 2007-12-09 08:17:09 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 6 | <META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
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| 7 | <title>"clang" C Language Family Frontend for LLVM</title>
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| 8 | <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="menu.css" />
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| 9 | <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="content.css" />
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| Kevin | 8e8f64e | 2007-10-06 21:28:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 10 | </head>
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| 11 | <body>
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| Chris Lattner | 29754e6 | 2007-12-09 08:17:09 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 12 | <!--#include virtual="menu.html.incl"-->
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| 13 | <div id="content">
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| 14 |
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| 15 | <h1>clang: a C language family frontend for LLVM</h1>
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| 16 |
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| 17 | <h2>About</h2>
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| 18 |
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| 19 | <p>The goal of the Clang project is to create a new <a
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| 20 | href="http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/cfe/trunk/LICENSE.TXT">BSD
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| 21 | licensed</a> C, C++, & ObjC front-end for the <a
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| 22 | href="http://www.llvm.org/">LLVM</a> compiler.</p>
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| 23 |
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| 24 | <p>In the context of this website, the term Clang actually refers to two
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| 25 | things:</p>
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| 26 |
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| 27 | <ol>
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| 28 | <li> A "code name" for the LLVM compiler front-end.</li>
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| 29 | <li> A specific library in the LLVM front-end -- in particular the
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| 30 | "driver" that makes all the other libraries work together.</li>
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| 31 | </ol>
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| 32 |
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| 33 | <p>The developers of Clang include contributers from Apple and numerous other volunteers.
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| 34 | <h2>Why?</h2>
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| 35 | <p>The development of a new front-end was started out of a need -- a need for a compiler that allows better diagnostics, better integration with IDEs, a license that is compatible with commercial products, and a compiler that is easier to develop and maintain. All of these were motivations for starting work on a new C/C++/ObjC front-end that could meet these needs.
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| 36 | <p>An excellent introduction to Clang can be found in the following video lectures:
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| 37 | <ul>
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| 38 | <li><a href="clang_video-05-25-2007.html">Clang Introduction</a>
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| 39 | <li><a href="clang_video-07-25-2007.html">Features and Performance of Clang</a>
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| 40 | </ul>
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| 41 | <h2>Features/Goals</h2>
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| 42 | Some of the goals for the project include the following:
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| 43 | <ul>
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| 44 | <li>Real-world, production quality compiler.</li>
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| 45 | <li>A single unified parser for C/ObjC/C++</li>
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| 46 | <li>Language conformance with C, ObjC, C++ (including variants, like C90, C99, etc)</li>
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| 47 | <li>GCC compatibility (supports GCC extensions, but allow them to be disabled)</li>
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| 48 | <li>Library based architecture with finely crafted C++ APIs</li>
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| 49 | <li>High performance</li>
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| 50 | <li>Design for integration with IDEs as well as code generation with <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM</a>.</li>
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| 51 | <li><a href="features.html#expressivediags">Expressive diagnostics</a></li>
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| 52 | <li>BSD License</li>
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| 53 | </ul>
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| 54 | Of course this is only a rough outline of the goals and features of Clang. To get a true sense of what the new LLVM front-end is all about, as well as why you might want to considering using it, see the <a href="features.html">Features</a> section.
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| 55 | <h2>Try Clang</h2>
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| 56 | If you are a compiler developer and want to try out Clang, then build instructions are available on the <a href="get_involved.html#build">Get Involved</a> page. Note that clang is still early in development. If you are looking for source analysis or source-to-source transformation tools, clang is probably a great solution for you. If you want to use it as a drop in C compiler, it is not yet ready.
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| 57 | <h2>Get Involved</h2>
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| 58 | If you are interested in working on Clang, then check out the <a href="get_involved.html">Get Involved</a> section.
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| 59 | </div>
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| Kevin | 8e8f64e | 2007-10-06 21:28:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 60 | </body>
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| Kevin | a5dc235 | 2007-10-05 21:17:52 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 61 | </html> |