5 ms·

I dont get it, doesnt the Zig project itself already do this?

diegocg 5y ago
> Future plans for the project include making it the C backend of Zig's translate-c feature and making it an optional C frontend for the self-hosted Zig compiler.
mitchellh 5y ago
The Zig project is able to compile C because it embeds LLVM. This is different and has different use cases, imo. Example: this may be a good alternative frontend for C compilation in Zig under specific scenarios.
- dnautics 5y ago
  I think incremental compilation and hotswapping are some of those use cases, but I could be wrong about that (I'm not entirely sure if/why LLVM can't do it)
  - pjmlp 5y ago
    It can partially do that already, thanks to CERN and others collaborating on its C++ JIT. 2021 LLVM Developers Meeting “Enabling Interactive C++ with Clang” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33ncbIQoa4c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33ncbIQoa4c Currently the best developer experience for hot code reload for C++ is Visual C++ 2022.
    - gavinray 5y ago
      It would be fair to say this is mostly due in particular to the work of Vassil Vassilev and Axel Naumann rather than all of CERN. If you're interested, they have monthly meetups open to the public, with fantastic speakers and presentations: https://compiler-research.org/meetings/ https://compiler-research.org/meetings/
      - pjmlp 5y ago
        Sure, I also didn't meant it was all of CERN. Back in my days, ROOT wasn't getting much love on my department, we were focused more in Python bindings.
wyldfire 5y ago
Yes, but thank goodness there's no quota.
wchar_t 5y ago
I believe it calls into Clang/LLVM to do so.
klyrs 5y ago
There's a pretty good chance that "A C compiler written in ___" will be well-received here, regardless of ___.
- 3a2d29 5y ago
  To add to this, I feel like half of the good github projects are doing something just because you can.
  - egeozcan 5y ago
    Which, to be frank, is a wonderful thing.
  - vidarh 5y ago
    In this case, though, it seems like embeddable C compilers as means to support integration of C code into other languages in better ways is becoming a trend.
WalterBright 5y ago
The dmd D compiler now has an embedded C compiler, written in D. The purpose is so D code can read C declarations. It doesn't use clang.
- fayten 5y ago
  Does this mean you can directly import C headers in D?
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    yes
    - oshiar53-0 5y ago
      How about static inline functions?
      - WalterBright 5y ago
        yes
    - fayten 5y ago
      Well well well, I guess it's time to brush off the ol' dmd.
- MaxBarraclough 5y ago
  For contrast, gforth (a prominent Forth interpreter, by Forth standards) generates+compiles+links binding code in C, at runtime, using the ordinary C toolchain. [0][1][2] A bit 'out there' you may say, but on the plus side this approach enables handling header files and tidily expressing bindings without the need to implement their own C parser. [2] [0] GitHub mirror: https://github.com/forthy42/gforth/blob/dda77d851ddeb80ca849ee554b29ac68fb680a87/libcc.fs#L22 https://github.com/forthy42/gforth/blob/dda77d851ddeb80ca849... [1] The official host: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gforth.git/tree/libcc.fs https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gforth.git/tree/libcc.fs [2] https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Call_a_foreign-language_function#Forth https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Call_a_foreign-language_functio...

> Future plans for the project include making it the C backend of Zig's translate-c feature and making it an optional C frontend for the self-hosted Zig compiler.

mitchellh 5y ago

The Zig project is able to compile C because it embeds LLVM. This is different and has different use cases, imo. Example: this may be a good alternative frontend for C compilation in Zig under specific scenarios.

dnautics 5y ago
I think incremental compilation and hotswapping are some of those use cases, but I could be wrong about that (I'm not entirely sure if/why LLVM can't do it)
- pjmlp 5y ago
  It can partially do that already, thanks to CERN and others collaborating on its C++ JIT. 2021 LLVM Developers Meeting “Enabling Interactive C++ with Clang” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33ncbIQoa4c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33ncbIQoa4c Currently the best developer experience for hot code reload for C++ is Visual C++ 2022.
  - gavinray 5y ago
    It would be fair to say this is mostly due in particular to the work of Vassil Vassilev and Axel Naumann rather than all of CERN. If you're interested, they have monthly meetups open to the public, with fantastic speakers and presentations: https://compiler-research.org/meetings/ https://compiler-research.org/meetings/
    - pjmlp 5y ago
      Sure, I also didn't meant it was all of CERN. Back in my days, ROOT wasn't getting much love on my department, we were focused more in Python bindings.

wyldfire 5y ago

Yes, but thank goodness there's no quota.

wchar_t 5y ago

I believe it calls into Clang/LLVM to do so.

klyrs 5y ago

There's a pretty good chance that "A C compiler written in ___" will be well-received here, regardless of ___.

3a2d29 5y ago
To add to this, I feel like half of the good github projects are doing something just because you can.
- egeozcan 5y ago
  Which, to be frank, is a wonderful thing.
- vidarh 5y ago
  In this case, though, it seems like embeddable C compilers as means to support integration of C code into other languages in better ways is becoming a trend.

WalterBright 5y ago

The dmd D compiler now has an embedded C compiler, written in D. The purpose is so D code can read C declarations. It doesn't use clang.

fayten 5y ago
Does this mean you can directly import C headers in D?
- WalterBright 5y ago
  yes
  - oshiar53-0 5y ago
    How about static inline functions?
    - WalterBright 5y ago
      yes
  - fayten 5y ago
    Well well well, I guess it's time to brush off the ol' dmd.
MaxBarraclough 5y ago
For contrast, gforth (a prominent Forth interpreter, by Forth standards) generates+compiles+links binding code in C, at runtime, using the ordinary C toolchain. [0][1][2] A bit 'out there' you may say, but on the plus side this approach enables handling header files and tidily expressing bindings without the need to implement their own C parser. [2] [0] GitHub mirror: https://github.com/forthy42/gforth/blob/dda77d851ddeb80ca849ee554b29ac68fb680a87/libcc.fs#L22 https://github.com/forthy42/gforth/blob/dda77d851ddeb80ca849... [1] The official host: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gforth.git/tree/libcc.fs https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gforth.git/tree/libcc.fs [2] https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Call_a_foreign-language_function#Forth https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Call_a_foreign-language_functio...