Ted Neward wrote:
Trying to just get some idea of what parts are necessary when using
(not necessarily building, if I can help it) LLVM 2.0 on a Win32 machine.
I don't use LLVM on Win32, so I'm don't know the answers to all of your
questions. However, the developers who ported LLVM to Win32 are on the
llvmdev mailing list. I'm forwarding this to llvmdev in hopes that they
can answer your questions.
In general, you should direct questions to the llvmdev mailing list
(http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev); despite the name,
it's the list for both LLVM developers and users, and there are enough
people on it that questions generally get answered quickly.
Below are my attempts to answer your questions:
(*) I understand it uses the MinGW toolchain—does LLVM thus need to be
installed in the same directory structure as MinGW?
I think LLVM can be compiled with MinGW, Cygwin, or Visual Studio.
(*) The website seems to contradict itself on running LLVM-compiled
bytecode apps on a Win32 box. In some places it seems to say you can,
in others it can’t. Help?
Can you point out specifically what parts of the documentation is
confusing or contradictory? If the docs are confusing people, we'd like
to fix it.
I guess, in general, I’m just looking for a simple “this is how to get
LLVM going on a Win32 box”, and I’m not finding it.
If you haven't already, please read the Getting Started Guide
(http://llvm.org/docs/GettingStarted.html); it should describe how to
get started using LLVM.
I’ve been all over the LLVM docs, and they seem a tad contradictory. I
don’t want to build from sources if I can help it, but I’m willing to
do so if that’s the necessary procedure. Any tidbits or pointers are
MUCHO appreciated.
LLVM comes as two parts: the first part is the LLVM tools and libraries,
which we call LLVM. The second part, which is optional, is the C/C++
front end, which compiles C/C++ code to LLVM bytecode. Most people
require both parts, but some people (e.g. those writing virtual machines
for new languages) only require LLVM.
Typically, LLVM is built from source (we do not provide pre-compiled
binaries). However, we provide pre-built binaries for the C/C++ front
end since compiling the front-end from source can be a bit difficult on
some platforms. If you use MingW, then I believe you can compile LLVM
from source and download the MingW front-end from our download page
(http://llvm.org/releases/download.html#2.0).
(FWIW, I’m trying to get into LLVM as a comparison against the SSCLI
and JVM as a virtual-machine/execution-engine.)
Cool.
If you have any more trouble getting LLVM up and running, please email
the llvmdev list; we'll be happy to help out.
-- John T.