[Pixman] Prototype JIT compiler

[Krzysztof Kosiński]

2014-02-10 19:45 GMT+01:00 Søren Sandmann <soren.sandmann at gmail.com>:
> Potential downsides is that it's a huge template based C++ library, and
> last time I looked at it (which was a long time ago), the SIMD support
> wasn't that convincing. I also suspect that it will be difficult to
> generate really top-notch code with LLVM because we won't have direct
> control over each machine instruction.

Another problem is that LLVM does not have a stable C++ ABI or API.

On the other hand, there is also the C binding, which does not expose
all the features, but is stable. It should be sufficient for the needs
of Pixman.

Templates are used in LLVM only in a few places where using anything
else would lead to code duplication. In typical usage, where you just
want to build some IR, optimize it and generate code, the only place
where you actually have to write the <> marks is IRBuilder.

Regards, Krzysztof