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 | cf086ea | 2007-12-10 08:19:29 +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 |
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| 18 | <p>The goal of the Clang project is to create a new C, C++, Objective C and
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| 19 | Objective C++ front-end for the <a href="http://www.llvm.org/">LLVM</a>
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Chris Lattner | 623ec62 | 2007-12-13 06:20:15 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 20 | compiler. You can <a href="get_started.html">get and build</a> the source
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| 21 | today.</p>
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Chris Lattner | cf086ea | 2007-12-10 08:19:29 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 22 |
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| 23 | <!--=====================================================================-->
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| 24 | <h2><a name="goals">Features and Goals</a></h2>
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| 25 | <!--=====================================================================-->
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| 26 |
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| 27 | <p>Some of the goals for the project include the following:</p>
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| 28 |
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| 29 | <p><b><a href="features.html#enduser">End-User Features</a></b>:</p>
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Chris Lattner | 5ea7493 | 2007-12-09 09:05:23 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 30 |
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Chris Lattner | cf086ea | 2007-12-10 08:19:29 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 31 | <ul>
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Chris Lattner | de9a4f5 | 2007-12-13 05:42:27 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 32 | <li>Fast compiles and low memory use</li>
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Chris Lattner | cf086ea | 2007-12-10 08:19:29 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 33 | <li>Expressive diagnostics</li>
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| 34 | <li>GCC compatibility</li>
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| 35 | </ul>
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Chris Lattner | 5ea7493 | 2007-12-09 09:05:23 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 36 |
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Chris Lattner | cf086ea | 2007-12-10 08:19:29 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 37 | <p><b><a href="features.html#applications">Utility and
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| 38 | Applications</a></b>:</p>
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| 39 |
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| 40 | <ul>
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Chris Lattner | cddb2af | 2007-12-10 18:56:37 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 41 | <li>Modular library based architecture</li>
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Chris Lattner | 623ec62 | 2007-12-13 06:20:15 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 42 | <li>Support diverse clients (refactoring, static analysis, code generation,
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| 43 | etc)</li>
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Chris Lattner | cddb2af | 2007-12-10 18:56:37 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 44 | <li>Allow tight integration with IDEs</li>
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Chris Lattner | cf086ea | 2007-12-10 08:19:29 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 45 | <li>Use the LLVM 'BSD' License</li>
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| 46 | </ul>
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| 47 |
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| 48 | <p><b><a href="features.html#design">Internal Design and
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| 49 | Implementation</a></b>:</p>
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| 50 |
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| 51 | <ul>
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| 52 | <li>A real-world, production quality compiler</li>
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| 53 | <li>A simple and hackable code base</li>
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| 54 | <li>A single unified parser for C, Objective C, C++, and Objective C++</li>
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| 55 | <li>Conformance with C/C++/ObjC and their variants</li>
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| 56 | </ul>
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| 57 |
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| 58 | <p>Of course this is only a rough outline of the goals and features of
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| 59 | Clang. To get a true sense of what it is all about, see the <a
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| 60 | href="features.html">Features</a> section, which breaks
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| 61 | each of these down and explains them in more detail.</p>
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| 62 |
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| 63 |
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| 64 | <!--=====================================================================-->
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| 65 | <h2>Why?</h2>
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| 66 | <!--=====================================================================-->
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| 67 |
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| 68 | <p>The development of a new front-end was started out of a need -- a need
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| 69 | for a compiler that allows better diagnostics, better integration with
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| 70 | IDEs, a license that is compatible with commercial products, and a
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| 71 | nimble compiler that is easy to develop and maintain. All of these were
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| 72 | motivations for starting work on a new front-end that could
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| 73 | meet these needs.</p>
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| 74 |
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| 75 | <p>A good (but quite dated) introduction to Clang can be found in the
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| 76 | following video lectures:</p>
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| 77 |
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| 78 | <ul>
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| 79 | <li><a href="clang_video-05-25-2007.html">Clang Introduction</a>
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| 80 | (May 2007)</li>
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| 81 | <li><a href="clang_video-07-25-2007.html">Features and Performance of
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| 82 | Clang</a> (July 2007)</li>
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| 83 | </ul>
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| 84 |
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| 85 | <p>For a more detailed comparison between Clang and other compilers, please
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| 86 | see the <a href="comparison.html">clang comparison page</a>.</p>
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| 87 |
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| 88 | <!--=====================================================================-->
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| 89 | <h2>Current Status</h2>
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| 90 | <!--=====================================================================-->
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| 91 |
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| 92 | <p>Clang is still in early development stages. If you are looking for
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| 93 | source analysis or source-to-source transformation tools, clang is probably
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| 94 | a great solution for you. If you want to use it as a drop in C compiler, it
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| 95 | is not yet ready.</p>
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| 96 |
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| 97 | <p>Clang currently has pretty good parsing and semantic analysis support for
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| 98 | C and Objective-C right now, and bugs are usually quickly fixed once
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| 99 | reported. C++ support is still very early, and we don't expect to have
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| 100 | respectable C++ support for another 2 years or so.</p>
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| 101 |
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| 102 | <!--=====================================================================-->
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Chris Lattner | 623ec62 | 2007-12-13 06:20:15 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 103 | <h2>Get it and get involved!</h2>
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Chris Lattner | cf086ea | 2007-12-10 08:19:29 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 104 | <!--=====================================================================-->
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| 105 |
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Chris Lattner | 623ec62 | 2007-12-13 06:20:15 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 106 | <p>Start by <a href="get_started.html">geting the code, building it, and
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| 107 | playing with it</a>. This will show you the sorts of things we can do
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| 108 | today and will let you have the "clang experience" first hand: hopefully
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| 109 | it will "resonate" with you. :)</p>
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| 110 |
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| 111 | <p>Once you've done that, please consider <a href="get_involved.html">getting
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| 112 | involved in the clang community</a>. The clang developers include numerous
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| 113 | volunteers as well as contributers from Apple. If you're interested in
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| 114 | following the development of clang, signing up for a mailing list is a good
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| 115 | way to learn about how the project works.</p>
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Chris Lattner | cf086ea | 2007-12-10 08:19:29 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 116 | </div>
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Kevin | 8e8f64e | 2007-10-06 21:28:47 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 117 | </body>
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Chris Lattner | 5ea7493 | 2007-12-09 09:05:23 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 118 | </html>
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