Re: [boost] Interest in an LLVM library?

Subject: Re: [boost] Interest in an LLVM library?
From: Avi Kivity (avi_at_[hidden])
Date: 2015-11-22 08:29:21

On 11/20/2015 07:35 PM, Andy Jost wrote:
> Avi Kivity wrote:
>
>> do you plan to allow integration of the JITted code with the calling program?
> The LLVM JIT compiler will resolve functions from the host program.  They must be externally defined in the embedded program.
>
>
>> and even inline functions from the calling program (perhaps consulting an intermediate representation of the calling program on disk)?
> That is certainly possible, though perhaps difficult for a Boost library to do.  I believe Clang has options for embedding a program's LLVM into its executable.  Perhaps the JIT compiler is smart enough to use that if it's available.  Anyway, it sounds like a good feature to consider for this library.
>
>
>> These capabilities would allow JIT compilation of user-provided programs that run on user-provided data sets, for example in big data applications.
> Yes, it is certainly possible.  I have written commercial software that does this (though not with this EDSL), so I can say with confidence that it is practical.  Rather than inline functions automatically from the host program, I think it would be easier to build a runtime library to link and inline with user programs.  It's easy to compile C/C++ to LLVM.
>
>

Then consider me a user.

I hope the "runtime library" you refer to is in some intermediate 
representation, having been partially compiled from C++ when the product 
is built, and then inlined into the generated code during JIT time.  I'd 
hate to run the full C++ compiler during JIT time.