

LLVM 2.7 Released - xearl
http://llvm.org/docs/ReleaseNotes.html

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jurjenh
Does anyone know how this compares with the JVM? I know that there is a java
front-end for LLVM, but I haven't seen much comparison information (to be
honest, haven't looked that hard either)

Can this be a good way to get (for example) Java code to interact with .net
code? Get cross platform compatibility?

I may not be the smartest in this area, but can't seem to get a grasp on
exactly why LLVM is so great, and what it enables compared to (for example)
the JVM.

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modeless
LLVM's intermediate representation is more low-level than JVM bytecode and
provides no safety guarantees, allowing it to be used for any language
including C. LLVM does not provide a language runtime, garbage collector, or
JIT compiler. In fact, its principal use right now is as the backend of ahead-
of-time compilers like GCC and Clang.

What LLVM does provide is a bunch of optimizers that operate on LLVM IR, and a
bunch of code generators that take LLVM IR and spit out machine code for
different CPUs. Traditionally these things have been inseparable parts of a
larger monolithic codebase (e.g. GCC). Compiler writers can now reuse LLVM's
optimizers and code generators instead of writing their own, and instead focus
on the frontend parts where all the interesting language features live.

~~~
chc
Actually, LLVM does provide a JIT compiler. It supports both AOT and JIT
compilation.

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MikeCapone
In case I'm not the only non-coder here who wanted a bit more background on
what LLVM is:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llvm>

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thwarted
The root of the linked side, <http://llvm.org/> , should be considered the
authoritative source for what LLVM is.

~~~
dmgd
You're 100% correct, but quite often I find that Wikipedia offers a broader
view of what something is than the official website's description.

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Keyframe
Anyone knows what the situation is with exception handling on windows?

