Re:Combining GNAT with LLVM
by 0xDEEPFAC on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @11:20AM
(#21126324)
I would say gcc and llvm are competitive - asserting gcc is faster at its current state is quite a claim.
Also, I was referring to AdaCore's implementation of the compiler backend. GNAT's architecture is structured like so:
GNAT Frontend (parsing, analysis, expansion) -> GNAT Backend (translation of frontend tree to something GNU or LLVM can understand) -> LLVM or GCC
This backend is quite complex and has a large role in how LLVM can optimize. My argument is that GNAT's GCC backend is 25 years old and a new backend written for LLVM probably generates better/cleaner code.
Also of note is that the GCC backend is written and C and the LLVM is actually written in Ada meaning its more uniform with the GNAT frontend.
Also, I was referring to AdaCore's implementation of the compiler backend. GNAT's architecture is structured like so:
GNAT Frontend (parsing, analysis, expansion) -> GNAT Backend (translation of frontend tree to something GNU or LLVM can understand) -> LLVM or GCC
This backend is quite complex and has a large role in how LLVM can optimize. My argument is that GNAT's GCC backend is 25 years old and a new backend written for LLVM probably generates better/cleaner code.
Also of note is that the GCC backend is written and C and the LLVM is actually written in Ada meaning its more uniform with the GNAT frontend.