Exploring alternative compiler backends

[ghost]

This lobste.rs article lists a bunch of alternative compiler backends:

https://lobste.rs/s/ijhl0w/libfirm_compiler_backend

Last but not least, the C backend (compile to C) will always be available as an option.

This is the list of languages that compile to C:

https://github.com/dbohdan/compilers-targeting-c

Some of them even compile to C++.

[ghost]

Maybe related, but I'm unsure: https://github.com/AdeptLanguage/Adept/issues/73

[IsaacShelton]

Yes these backends are definitely worth exploring.

A C backend would be really nice as well. The one bad thing though about a C backend is that compilers like clang and gcc are very very slow on large files in my experience for some reason, so there would have to be something to get around this.

LLVM has been good and has good optimizations, although is overkill sometimes.

Which backend(s) will be supported is something that will need to be considered for sure.

[ghost]

A C backend would be really nice as well. The one bad thing though about a C backend is that compilers like clang and gcc are very very slow on large files in my experience for some reason, so there would have to be something to get around this.

These generated C files crashed my computer. GCC needs too much memory in order to compile them.

https://github.com/gobo-eiffel/gobo/tree/master/tool/gec/bootstrap

[ghost]

Which backend(s) will be supported is something that will need to be considered for sure.

LLVM is still the best. Compiler backends like QBE sounds fancy, but the problem is it doesn't support Windows. Decent Windows support, I can only think of LLVM. This is the reason why I closed this issue.