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(Which is, of course, ironic given that the entire original goal of LLVM was only to build a JIT; it was too slow, but made an OK enough compiler backend ;P.)

• jcranmer 6y ago
  > the entire original goal of LLVM was only to build a JIT That's not exactly true from what I recall of speaking with Vikram and Chris. The idea was to build a compiler framework that could support profile-guided optimization (and other then-advanced JIT techniques) for idle-time or install-time optimization of C/C++ codes. Chris's original thesis doesn't even mention JIT compilers, except as comparison point for techniques, and instead focuses on things like link-time optimization. (Indeed, Chris offered LLVM to replace gcc's then-broken LTO infrastructure, but this was turned down.)
  • saurik 6y ago
    Clearly, Chris's thought process has to be correct to some real extent and mostly must be deferred to in the end; but, I was a grad student interested in the Low-Level Virtual Machine at the time, and I remember it was absolutely considered by everyone to be a runtime execution system with a JIT ;P and what made it unique vs. "high-level" virtual machines was that it was going to allow unsafe code, trusted by default, but otherwise work like any other virtual machine, allowing for JIT-like benefits (profile guided being one, as you mention)... I am totally willing to believe that everyone misunderstood the project at the time and the at the well over a decade since has corrupted what memory I have of the discussions.