5 ms·

LLVM 3.3 Released

143 points by dbaupp 13y ago

kibwen 13y ago
How usable is LLDB nowadays? I'm curious how easily it could be extended to support other LLVM-backed compilers.
- samps 13y ago
  I've been using it regularly and I think it's ready. I used it some time ago when even basic commands would fail with cryptic error messages, but over the last couple of months, the version that came with Xcode has improved a lot. I find that it can evaluate more C++ expressions that gdb can now and I think the command structure feels more regular. Heartily recommended.
  - nimrody 13y ago
    gdb's C++ support leaves much to be desired, in my opinion. Can you ask LLDB to never stop at certain functions or files? (like gdb's skip command except that unfortunately you cannot put that in your .gdbinit file). Very useful for skipping copy constructors, etc. Can I use C++ syntax for overloaded operators? I.e., can I use A(1,1) for matrix object access instead of A.operator()(1,1) like gdb requires? Can you wrap a class with some user defined script to simplify its interface for debugging? E.g., let the user browse and edit the elements of an STL vector without understanding the vector class implementation? (pretty-printing is implemented for gdb but Visual Studio does a much better job here!)
    - bdash 13y ago
      > Can you ask LLDB to never stop at certain functions or files? LLDB has a setting named target.process.thread.step-avoid-regexp, the value of which is a regular expression defining functions that step-in won't stop in. > Can you wrap a class with some user defined script to simplify its interface for debugging? LLDB exposes its entire API to Python, so you can either embed Python scripts in to the LLDB debugger or embed the LLDB debugger in to a Python script. There's an introduction available at http://lldb.llvm.org/python-reference.html http://lldb.llvm.org/python-reference.html, but for more detailed documentation you'll need to use the help functionality within lldb's built-in Python prompt.
_ZeD_ 13y ago
LLVM and Clang’s documentation has been migrated to the Sphinx documentation generation system which uses easy-to-write reStructuredText. good!
- pestaa 13y ago
  This change is welcome. For me reStructuredText broke the ice and made me like writing documentation.
AlexanderDhoore 13y ago
It's funny how few people there are (around me) that know about LLVM. When Java, PHP or C# gets new features things go crazy. But LLVM is like this secret weapon that Apple (and others) have. Chugging along, getting more powerful, not asking for attention.
- pjmlp 13y ago
  LLVM has lots of nice features, but they are mainly interesting to C, C++ and Objective-C developers on desktop UNIX systems. So it tends to be ignored by the folks you mentioned. An interesting consequence of LLVM's popularity is that compiler researchers are moving away from JVM and .NET implementations to LLVM for their work.
  - marcosscriven 13y ago
    I hadn't looked into LLVM at all until Emscripten came out, and before that I thought it was just a new C++ compiler. I had a go at converting a C++ prog to Javascript with it ( http://www.fabfabbers.com/openscad/ http://www.fabfabbers.com/openscad/ ) , and was totally astonished it worked. Since then I've read up a lot on compilers and language design - fascinating stuff I didn't really appreciate at university. If I were writing a new language today, I'd definitely just write an LLVM front end.
  - MichaelGG 13y ago
    I understand the perf hit on the JVM can be terrible for some languages (less so for CLR), but it certainly is nice to immediately gain a massive set of libraries, as well as benefiting from the whole ecosystem of tooling. As I understand, LLVM just provides the codegen part, right? (Mono has an LLVM option for codegen.)
    - ed_blackburn 13y ago
      Mono does indeed have an LLVM backend. I have no idea if it is upto date with Mono, or LLVM. I'd love to know why one choose a difference compiler / VM. A fair comparison.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- dbaupp 13y ago
  An email has been sent: http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvm-announce/2013-June/000046.html http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvm-announce/2013-June/0... (and the front page of llvm.org lists it as the latest release).
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
ksec 13y ago
Slightly Off Topic, What happened to Rubinus which is based on LLVM?

LLVM 3.3 Released

143 points by dbaupp 13y ago

kibwen 13y ago

How usable is LLDB nowadays? I'm curious how easily it could be extended to support other LLVM-backed compilers.

samps 13y ago
I've been using it regularly and I think it's ready. I used it some time ago when even basic commands would fail with cryptic error messages, but over the last couple of months, the version that came with Xcode has improved a lot. I find that it can evaluate more C++ expressions that gdb can now and I think the command structure feels more regular. Heartily recommended.
- nimrody 13y ago
  gdb's C++ support leaves much to be desired, in my opinion. Can you ask LLDB to never stop at certain functions or files? (like gdb's skip command except that unfortunately you cannot put that in your .gdbinit file). Very useful for skipping copy constructors, etc. Can I use C++ syntax for overloaded operators? I.e., can I use A(1,1) for matrix object access instead of A.operator()(1,1) like gdb requires? Can you wrap a class with some user defined script to simplify its interface for debugging? E.g., let the user browse and edit the elements of an STL vector without understanding the vector class implementation? (pretty-printing is implemented for gdb but Visual Studio does a much better job here!)
  - bdash 13y ago
    > Can you ask LLDB to never stop at certain functions or files? LLDB has a setting named target.process.thread.step-avoid-regexp, the value of which is a regular expression defining functions that step-in won't stop in. > Can you wrap a class with some user defined script to simplify its interface for debugging? LLDB exposes its entire API to Python, so you can either embed Python scripts in to the LLDB debugger or embed the LLDB debugger in to a Python script. There's an introduction available at http://lldb.llvm.org/python-reference.html http://lldb.llvm.org/python-reference.html, but for more detailed documentation you'll need to use the help functionality within lldb's built-in Python prompt.

_ZeD_ 13y ago

LLVM and Clang’s documentation has been migrated to the Sphinx documentation generation system which uses easy-to-write reStructuredText. good!

pestaa 13y ago
This change is welcome. For me reStructuredText broke the ice and made me like writing documentation.

AlexanderDhoore 13y ago

It's funny how few people there are (around me) that know about LLVM. When Java, PHP or C# gets new features things go crazy. But LLVM is like this secret weapon that Apple (and others) have. Chugging along, getting more powerful, not asking for attention.

pjmlp 13y ago
LLVM has lots of nice features, but they are mainly interesting to C, C++ and Objective-C developers on desktop UNIX systems. So it tends to be ignored by the folks you mentioned. An interesting consequence of LLVM's popularity is that compiler researchers are moving away from JVM and .NET implementations to LLVM for their work.
- marcosscriven 13y ago
  I hadn't looked into LLVM at all until Emscripten came out, and before that I thought it was just a new C++ compiler. I had a go at converting a C++ prog to Javascript with it ( http://www.fabfabbers.com/openscad/ http://www.fabfabbers.com/openscad/ ) , and was totally astonished it worked. Since then I've read up a lot on compilers and language design - fascinating stuff I didn't really appreciate at university. If I were writing a new language today, I'd definitely just write an LLVM front end.
- MichaelGG 13y ago
  I understand the perf hit on the JVM can be terrible for some languages (less so for CLR), but it certainly is nice to immediately gain a massive set of libraries, as well as benefiting from the whole ecosystem of tooling. As I understand, LLVM just provides the codegen part, right? (Mono has an LLVM option for codegen.)
  - ed_blackburn 13y ago
    Mono does indeed have an LLVM backend. I have no idea if it is upto date with Mono, or LLVM. I'd love to know why one choose a difference compiler / VM. A fair comparison.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

dbaupp 13y ago
An email has been sent: http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvm-announce/2013-June/000046.html http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvm-announce/2013-June/0... (and the front page of llvm.org lists it as the latest release).
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

ksec 13y ago

Slightly Off Topic, What happened to Rubinus which is based on LLVM?