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LLVM for Grad Students (2015)
- ChrisRackauckas 9y agoGreat stuff! I've gotten pretty familiar with the way LLVM looks since Julia's `@code_llvm` in front of any function spits out the IR, which is something that can be useful to learn what's going on and debug performance. I agree that it's readily human readible. I hope to see a direct interface for adding passes to Julia in the near future.
- michaelmior 9y agoProbably worth adding (2015) to the title.
- wasx 9y agoWhy's that?
- michaelmior 9y agoI for one appreciate when something that's several years old is clearly identified as such. That way I know that I should at least consider the possibility that what I'm reading, if I find it useful, is potentially out of date.
- bjourne 9y agoThe LLVM api evolves rapidly. There is no way sample code from 2015 will compile cleanly with the latest version.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- dang 9y agoOn HN, it's the convention to add the year when a story is more than a year and a bit old.
- dang 9y agoThanks—added.
- michaelmior 9y agoThanks dang!
- forg0t_username 9y agoThis is really cool, I had no idea it was this straightforward to manipulate LLVM internals. Definitely a side project to explore.
- UncleMeat 9y agoThis is one of the main reasons why LLVM took over. GCC is a nightmare to work with by comparison.
- gravypod 9y agoI wish there were programs to help open source developers, who are already working on compilers, to get their work published and get credit for their effort. Why should a person who pays a university to give them a project to do get a degree and recognition and someone who just likes compilers be left with some thumbs up on a mail list?
- Tehnix 9y agoAre you saying that people should get help publishing papers, or that you think people doing work outside of university should be able to get the credits transferred? The former I'd get behind, the latter not so much.
- prestonbriggs 9y agoThere are several conferences and journals that will accept submissions from open-source developers (or anyone else). Many have a blind reviewing process, so the lack of a famous name/affiliation shouldn't have an effect. Classic compiler conferences are PLDI (programming language design and implementation) and CGO (code generation and optimization). And of course, the LLVM conferences seem a natural venue. But generally it's hard to publish code. Mostly you have to write a paper, and the paper usually has to have an element of novelty. Can't just be "I built this compiler!" Lot of LLVM talks seem to be tutorials, which is another approach, and of course very useful. Or you can do like Adrian Sampson and many others, and publish it via a blog. You won't get tenure that way, but most people don't care.
- Q6T46nT668w6i3m 9y agoFWIW, papers that focus on implementation are (slowly) becoming acceptable in the compilers community. However, like you mentioned, novelty is essential. The arxiv is another possible option for implementation papers (if you don’t mind piggybacking on another CoRR category like architecture or programming languages).
- eastWestMath 9y ago>Why should a person who pays a university to give them a project to do get a degree and recognition I have a few issues with this comment. I am a graduate student and while I personally work on the theory side, I have labmates involved in these sorts of projects. We have to get chosen to work on a project (accepted to grad program, given funding, taken on as a student by a PL researcher) - these steps are all based on the merits of our undergraduate work, we are not simply paying to work on the project. We are directed by an expert in the field, given mentoring, and work on our projects 30-50 hours a week. It should not be surprising that most significant recognition-worthy work in programming language theory occurs in this environment.
- dang 9y agoDiscussed at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9998140 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9998140