InfoQ Homepage Compilers Content on InfoQ
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LLD, LLVM’s New Linker, Coming to LLVM 4
LLD, which touts great performance improvements over GCC ld, will be included in LLVM 4 rc1 and enabled by default. Although the new linker is already able to build a running FreeBSD/amd64 base system, its inclusion in LLVM is still experimental and could be set back in rc2 if it causes problems.
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MIT Extended LLVM IR to Enable Better Optimization of Parallel Programs
Researchers at MIT have been working on a fork of LLVM to explore a new approach to optimizing parallel code by embedding fork-join parallelism directly into the compiler’s intermediate representation (IR). This, the researchers maintain, makes it possible to leverage most of the IR-level serial optimizations for parallel programs.
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Compiling on Windows without Visual Studio
Microsoft has previously offered two different build tools for those needing to compile code without installing Visual Studio. The new Visual Studio Build Tools package combines these into a single tool.
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WebAssembly Browser Preview Asks Community for Feedback
The upcoming WebAssembly technology has reached the browser preview stage where major browser vendors have released a stable and compatible version of the language. They are now asking the community to use it and provide feedback.
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Visual Studio 15 Improves C++ Project Loading
Visual Studio in the past has struggled with large solutions. Visual Studio 15 seeks to improve project load times for C++ developers with a new feature called Faster Project Load.
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How Facebook Redesigned the HHVM JIT Compiler for Performance
In the Summer of 2013, Facebook engineers started a major redesign of the HHVM JIT compiler that brought an overall 15% reduction of CPU usage on Facebook’s web servers. Facebook engineer Guilherme Ottoni has recently described how Facebook achieved that result by backing profile-guided optimizations (PGO) into their JIT compiler.
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Targeting Linux Made Easier in Visual Studio 2015
Microsoft continues to refine their new extension for Visual Studio 2015 which provides developers with the ability to write C/C++ code in VS2015 and then transfer it to a remote machine running Linux for compilation and debugging. This combines the benefits of Visual Studio's IDE with advantages of a Linux deployment environment.
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V8's New JavaScript Interpreter Improves Memory Consumption
Google's V8 JavaScript engine has a new interpreter, called Ignition, that hopes to reduce the compiler's memory consumption and reduce complexity. Chrome 53 will start using Ignition on Android devices with 512 MB of RAM or less.
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Go 1.7 Brings Compiler Improvements and More
Go 1.7 significantly improves both compile times and runtime performance, says Google engineer Chris Broadfoot. It also adds hierarchical tests and benchmarks and official support for Linux on IBM z Systems (s390x).
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Rust 1.10 Improves Bootstrapping, Panic Handling, and More
Newly released Rust 1.10 introduces a new approach to bootstrapping that aims to be friendlier to open-source distributions. Additionally, it adds a new cargo option for handling panic that improves compiler performance and reduces binary size, a new format for shared libraries, and many performance improvements.
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VS2015 Update 3 Focuses on Performance and Stability
The full release of Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 has been made. Update 3 places a great emphasis on improving the stability of the product and reducing the amount of memory used by the IDE for solutions of all sizes. Other changes include better C++ support and better handling of product activation.
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Checked C - A Safer C/C++ from Microsoft
Microsoft has open sourced Checked C, a research project meant to add bounds checking to C and C++.
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Writing C++ for Linux on Visual Studio
Visual Studio 2015 users have a new way to write C++ code for non-Windows environments. Thanks to the Visual C++ for Linux extension, VS2015 supports writing C++ code under Windows and then deploying that code to a Linux machine for compilation, execution, and debugging. New features increase the usefulness by adding a Linux Console Window and fixing several bugs.
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Visual Studio Debuts Improved C/C++ Support
Microsoft's code-based multiplatform editor Visual Studio Code has sought to be a go-to choice for developers whether they use Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. One aspect that has limited the editor is the lack of proper C/C++ support beyond basic syntax highlighting. A new Microsoft extension seeks to narrow the feature gap while providing several C/C++ focused tools.
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Anders Hejlsberg Explains Modern Compiler Construction
The main reference in compiler construction, Compiler: Principles, Techniques, and Tools, also know as the Dragon Book, was first published in 1986. Anders Hejlsberg, known for his work on Turbo Pascal, Delphi, C# and TypeScript, explains in a Channel 9 interview how compiler construction today is different from how it was done 30 years ago.