1*e5dd7070Spatrick<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" 2*e5dd7070Spatrick "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> 3*e5dd7070Spatrick<!-- Material used from: HTML 4.01 specs: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/ --> 4*e5dd7070Spatrick<html> 5*e5dd7070Spatrick<head> 6*e5dd7070Spatrick <META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> 7*e5dd7070Spatrick <title>Clang C Language Family Frontend for LLVM</title> 8*e5dd7070Spatrick <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="menu.css"> 9*e5dd7070Spatrick <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="content.css"> 10*e5dd7070Spatrick</head> 11*e5dd7070Spatrick<body> 12*e5dd7070Spatrick<!--#include virtual="menu.html.incl"--> 13*e5dd7070Spatrick<div id="content"> 14*e5dd7070Spatrick <!--*********************************************************************--> 15*e5dd7070Spatrick <h1>Clang: a C language family frontend for LLVM</h1> 16*e5dd7070Spatrick <!--*********************************************************************--> 17*e5dd7070Spatrick 18*e5dd7070Spatrick <p>The Clang project provides a language front-end and tooling infrastructure 19*e5dd7070Spatrick for languages in the C language family (C, C++, Objective C/C++, OpenCL, 20*e5dd7070Spatrick CUDA, and RenderScript) for the <a href="https://www.llvm.org/">LLVM</a> 21*e5dd7070Spatrick project. Both a GCC-compatible compiler driver (<tt>clang</tt>) and an 22*e5dd7070Spatrick MSVC-compatible compiler driver (<tt>clang-cl.exe</tt>) are provided. You 23*e5dd7070Spatrick can <a href="get_started.html">get and build</a> the source today.</p> 24*e5dd7070Spatrick 25*e5dd7070Spatrick <!--=====================================================================--> 26*e5dd7070Spatrick <h2 id="goals">Features and Goals</h2> 27*e5dd7070Spatrick <!--=====================================================================--> 28*e5dd7070Spatrick 29*e5dd7070Spatrick <p>Some of the goals for the project include the following:</p> 30*e5dd7070Spatrick 31*e5dd7070Spatrick <p><b><a href="features.html#enduser">End-User Features</a></b>:</p> 32*e5dd7070Spatrick 33*e5dd7070Spatrick <ul> 34*e5dd7070Spatrick <li>Fast compiles and low memory use</li> 35*e5dd7070Spatrick <li>Expressive diagnostics (<a href="diagnostics.html">examples</a>)</li> 36*e5dd7070Spatrick <li>GCC compatibility</li> 37*e5dd7070Spatrick </ul> 38*e5dd7070Spatrick 39*e5dd7070Spatrick <p><b><a href="features.html#applications">Utility and 40*e5dd7070Spatrick Applications</a></b>:</p> 41*e5dd7070Spatrick 42*e5dd7070Spatrick <ul> 43*e5dd7070Spatrick <li>Modular library based architecture</li> 44*e5dd7070Spatrick <li>Support diverse clients (refactoring, static analysis, code generation, 45*e5dd7070Spatrick etc.)</li> 46*e5dd7070Spatrick <li>Allow tight integration with IDEs</li> 47*e5dd7070Spatrick <li>Use the LLVM 'Apache 2' License</li> 48*e5dd7070Spatrick </ul> 49*e5dd7070Spatrick 50*e5dd7070Spatrick <p><b><a href="features.html#design">Internal Design and 51*e5dd7070Spatrick Implementation</a></b>:</p> 52*e5dd7070Spatrick 53*e5dd7070Spatrick <ul> 54*e5dd7070Spatrick <li>A real-world, production quality compiler</li> 55*e5dd7070Spatrick <li>A simple and hackable code base</li> 56*e5dd7070Spatrick <li>A single unified parser for C, Objective C, C++, and Objective C++</li> 57*e5dd7070Spatrick <li>Conformance with C/C++/ObjC and their variants</li> 58*e5dd7070Spatrick </ul> 59*e5dd7070Spatrick 60*e5dd7070Spatrick <p>Of course this is only a rough outline of the goals and features of 61*e5dd7070Spatrick Clang. To get a true sense of what it is all about, see the <a 62*e5dd7070Spatrick href="features.html">Features</a> section, which breaks 63*e5dd7070Spatrick each of these down and explains them in more detail.</p> 64*e5dd7070Spatrick 65*e5dd7070Spatrick 66*e5dd7070Spatrick <!--=====================================================================--> 67*e5dd7070Spatrick <h2>Why?</h2> 68*e5dd7070Spatrick <!--=====================================================================--> 69*e5dd7070Spatrick 70*e5dd7070Spatrick <p>Development of the new front-end was started out of a need 71*e5dd7070Spatrick for a compiler that allows better diagnostics, better integration with 72*e5dd7070Spatrick IDEs, a license that is compatible with commercial products, and a 73*e5dd7070Spatrick nimble compiler that is easy to develop and maintain. All of these were 74*e5dd7070Spatrick motivations for starting work on a new front-end that could 75*e5dd7070Spatrick meet these needs.</p> 76*e5dd7070Spatrick 77*e5dd7070Spatrick <!--=====================================================================--> 78*e5dd7070Spatrick <h2>Current Status</h2> 79*e5dd7070Spatrick <!--=====================================================================--> 80*e5dd7070Spatrick 81*e5dd7070Spatrick <p>Clang is considered to 82*e5dd7070Spatrick be a production quality C, Objective-C, C++ and Objective-C++ compiler when 83*e5dd7070Spatrick targeting X86-32, X86-64, and ARM (other targets may have caveats, but are 84*e5dd7070Spatrick usually easy to fix). As example, Clang is used in production to build 85*e5dd7070Spatrick performance-critical software like Chrome or Firefox.<br /> If you are looking 86*e5dd7070Spatrick for source analysis or source-to-source transformation tools, Clang is probably 87*e5dd7070Spatrick a great solution for you. Clang supports C++11, C++14 and C++17, please see 88*e5dd7070Spatrick the <a href="cxx_status.html">C++ status</a> page for more information.</p> 89*e5dd7070Spatrick 90*e5dd7070Spatrick <!--=====================================================================--> 91*e5dd7070Spatrick <h2>Get it and get involved!</h2> 92*e5dd7070Spatrick <!--=====================================================================--> 93*e5dd7070Spatrick 94*e5dd7070Spatrick <p>Start by <a href="get_started.html">getting the code, building it, and 95*e5dd7070Spatrick playing with it</a>. This will show you the sorts of things we can do 96*e5dd7070Spatrick today and will let you have the "Clang experience" first hand: hopefully 97*e5dd7070Spatrick it will "resonate" with you. :)</p> 98*e5dd7070Spatrick 99*e5dd7070Spatrick <p>Once you've done that, please consider <a href="get_involved.html">getting 100*e5dd7070Spatrick involved in the Clang community</a>. The Clang developers include numerous 101*e5dd7070Spatrick volunteer contributors with a variety of backgrounds. If you're 102*e5dd7070Spatrick interested in 103*e5dd7070Spatrick following the development of Clang, signing up for a mailing list is a good 104*e5dd7070Spatrick way to learn about how the project works.</p> 105*e5dd7070Spatrick</div> 106*e5dd7070Spatrick</body> 107*e5dd7070Spatrick</html> 108