>The idea behind LLVM was to have the various compiler stages and tooling be re-usable and plugin like, unlike the monolithic design GCC had. More specifically

>The idea behind LLVM was to have the various compiler stages and tooling be re-usable and plugin like, unlike the monolithic design GCC had. More specifically, the idea behind LLVM was "life-long program compilation and optimization" in stages at translation time, link time, install time, and runtime. The natural way to realize this was modular components at different levels working around a good serializable IR. If your goal is a traditional once-and-done AOT compiler, you might be forgiven for architecting something more heavily coupled and interdependent like GCC, whose IR was an afterthought (by 15 years.) LLVM's focus has shifted somewhat, but those original designs created a kind of serendipitous foundation.