| Cedric Venet | 3d65864 | 2009-02-14 20:20:19 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" |
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| 4 | <html> |
| 5 | <head> |
| 6 | <META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> |
| 7 | <title>"clang" C Language Family Frontend for LLVM</title> |
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| 11 | <body> |
| 12 | <!--#include virtual="menu.html.incl"--> |
| 13 | <div id="content"> |
| 14 | <!--*********************************************************************--> |
| 15 | <h1>clang: a C language family frontend for LLVM</h1> |
| 16 | <!--*********************************************************************--> |
| 17 | |
| 18 | <p>The goal of the Clang project is to create a new C, C++, Objective C and |
| 19 | Objective C++ front-end for the <a href="http://www.llvm.org/">LLVM</a> |
| 20 | compiler. You can <a href="get_started.html">get and build</a> the source |
| 21 | today.</p> |
| 22 | |
| 23 | <!--=====================================================================--> |
| 24 | <h2 id="goals">Features and Goals</h2> |
| 25 | <!--=====================================================================--> |
| 26 | |
| 27 | <p>Some of the goals for the project include the following:</p> |
| 28 | |
| 29 | <p><b><a href="features.html#enduser">End-User Features</a></b>:</p> |
| 30 | |
| 31 | <ul> |
| 32 | <li>Fast compiles and low memory use</li> |
| 33 | <li>Expressive diagnostics</li> |
| 34 | <li>GCC compatibility</li> |
| 35 | </ul> |
| 36 | |
| 37 | <p><b><a href="features.html#applications">Utility and |
| 38 | Applications</a></b>:</p> |
| 39 | |
| 40 | <ul> |
| 41 | <li>Modular library based architecture</li> |
| 42 | <li>Support diverse clients (refactoring, static analysis, code generation, |
| 43 | etc)</li> |
| 44 | <li>Allow tight integration with IDEs</li> |
| 45 | <li>Use the LLVM 'BSD' License</li> |
| 46 | </ul> |
| 47 | |
| 48 | <p><b><a href="features.html#design">Internal Design and |
| 49 | Implementation</a></b>:</p> |
| 50 | |
| 51 | <ul> |
| 52 | <li>A real-world, production quality compiler</li> |
| 53 | <li>A simple and hackable code base</li> |
| 54 | <li>A single unified parser for C, Objective C, C++, and Objective C++</li> |
| 55 | <li>Conformance with C/C++/ObjC and their variants</li> |
| 56 | </ul> |
| 57 | |
| 58 | <p>Of course this is only a rough outline of the goals and features of |
| 59 | Clang. To get a true sense of what it is all about, see the <a |
| 60 | href="features.html">Features</a> section, which breaks |
| 61 | each of these down and explains them in more detail.</p> |
| 62 | |
| 63 | |
| 64 | <!--=====================================================================--> |
| 65 | <h2>Why?</h2> |
| 66 | <!--=====================================================================--> |
| 67 | |
| 68 | <p>The development of a new front-end was started out of a need -- a need |
| 69 | for a compiler that allows better diagnostics, better integration with |
| 70 | IDEs, a license that is compatible with commercial products, and a |
| 71 | nimble compiler that is easy to develop and maintain. All of these were |
| 72 | motivations for starting work on a new front-end that could |
| 73 | meet these needs.</p> |
| 74 | |
| 75 | <p>A good (but quite dated) introduction to Clang can be found in the |
| 76 | following video lectures:</p> |
| 77 | |
| 78 | <ul> |
| 79 | <li><a href="clang_video-05-25-2007.html">Clang Introduction</a> |
| 80 | (May 2007)</li> |
| 81 | <li><a href="clang_video-07-25-2007.html">Features and Performance of |
| 82 | Clang</a> (July 2007)</li> |
| 83 | </ul> |
| 84 | |
| 85 | <p>For a more detailed comparison between Clang and other compilers, please |
| 86 | see the <a href="comparison.html">clang comparison page</a>.</p> |
| 87 | |
| 88 | <!--=====================================================================--> |
| 89 | <h2>Current Status</h2> |
| 90 | <!--=====================================================================--> |
| 91 | |
| 92 | <p>Clang is still in early development stages. If you are looking for |
| 93 | source analysis or source-to-source transformation tools, clang is probably |
| 94 | a great solution for you. If you want to use it as a drop in C compiler, it |
| 95 | is not yet ready.</p> |
| 96 | |
| 97 | <p>Clang currently has pretty good parsing and semantic analysis support for |
| 98 | C and Objective-C right now, and bugs are usually quickly fixed once |
| 99 | reported. <a href="cxx_status.html">C++ support</a> is still very early, |
| 100 | and we don't expect to have respectable C++ support for another 2 years |
| 101 | or so.</p> |
| 102 | |
| 103 | <!--=====================================================================--> |
| 104 | <h2>Get it and get involved!</h2> |
| 105 | <!--=====================================================================--> |
| 106 | |
| 107 | <p>Start by <a href="get_started.html">getting the code, building it, and |
| 108 | playing with it</a>. This will show you the sorts of things we can do |
| 109 | today and will let you have the "clang experience" first hand: hopefully |
| 110 | it will "resonate" with you. :)</p> |
| 111 | |
| 112 | <p>Once you've done that, please consider <a href="get_involved.html">getting |
| 113 | involved in the clang community</a>. The clang developers include numerous |
| 114 | volunteer contributors with a variety of backgrounds. If you're |
| 115 | interested in |
| 116 | following the development of clang, signing up for a mailing list is a good |
| 117 | way to learn about how the project works.</p> |
| 118 | </div> |
| 119 | </body> |
| 120 | </html> |