4 ms·
doesn't clang also support many backends?
by 77pt77 4y ago
doesn't clang also support many backends?
- compiler-guy 4y agoMany, but not as many as gcc. Gcc being the only game in town for about thirty years gave it a massive head start, and gcc existed during an explosion in different isas and architectures. Every obscure processor in the world seems to have a gcc backend. Clang much less so. But clang supports all the modern “important” isas, so as a practical matter, it doesn’t matter that much for everyday use.
- skissane 4y agoMy impression is, GCC development team is more open to mainlining support for obscure architectures, Clang/LLVM require stronger evidence of demand and maintenance commitment. Of course, 99.9% of people don't use any obscure architecture, so that's irrelevant to them.
- cozzyd 4y agodue to clang's license, some vendors like to release their own proprietary version of clang for an architecture (though in cases I'm aware of, parallel unofficial open source support exists as well, though I don't know if this is always true).