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Agreed, my impression is that the main benefit of bitcode is that it allows Apple to rebuild apps for the purposes of fixing compiler backend bugs and perhaps i
by 0x0 8y ago
Agreed, my impression is that the main benefit of bitcode is that it allows Apple to rebuild apps for the purposes of fixing compiler backend bugs and perhaps introducing improved micro-optimizations for newer CPUs generations within the same architecture, but it certainly does not work as a "java bytecode" layer - it definitively wouldn't enable Apple to change to a completely different CPU architecture in newer iPhones or Macs. The LLVM IR and the ObjectiveC/Swift/libc ABI is too architecture-specific to work as a portability layer.
- glhaynes 8y agomy impression is that the main benefit of bitcode is that it allows Apple to rebuild apps for the purposes of fixing compiler backend bugs and perhaps introducing improved micro-optimizations for newer CPUs generations within the same architecture This is my impression, too, but it's always seemed strange to me - are the rare fix for a compiler bug and a few micro-optimizations worth all the effort?
- 0x0 8y agoMaybe they expected more compiler bugs than usual when bringing out Swift?