llvm dev - May 2016 - A "Cross-Platform Runtime Library API" in LLVM IR

My idea is an API where anyone can build a Runtime Library for any backend,
including a set of functions people can inline/rename creating functions the
frontend can include in the IR.

For example implementing a cross-platform runtime function that allocates memory
for a new object. (Obviously the library will have to be compiled for each
target).

I read about compiler-rt but I think it has nothing to do with what I'm
thinking about, maybe I'm wrong?

If something like this doesn't exist, maybe I can start a little project for
LLVM about this

> On May 22, 2016, at 10:31 AM, Lorenzo Laneve via llvm-dev <llvm-dev at
lists.llvm.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> My idea is an API where anyone can build a Runtime Library for any backend,
including a set of functions people can inline/rename creating functions the
frontend can include in the IR.
> 
> For example implementing a cross-platform runtime function that allocates
memory for a new object. (Obviously the library will have to be compiled for
each target).
Memory allocation is usually considered part of libc. There are several libc
implementations that target multiple architectures. musl, glibc, newlib, diet
libc to name just a few.

- Matthias

I know, that's the problem.
We can assume all of the system calls as runtime functions: such as I/O,
allocations etc. and create a set of function implemented for all the
architectures.
For example, let's think about the mem allocation again: we can provide a
primitive function with the same name for all archs (e.g. __alloc() ) and then
people can include this function __alloc() in their libraries, inlining it or
even renaming it just to fit the frontend needs. And this can be useful: every
backend should implement this set of functions ( __alloc(), __free(), __write()…
just for example) so the frontends can build a library with these functions as
they want.
I don't know if you get me.
> On May 22, 2016, at 9:06 PM, Matthias Braun <matze at braunis.de>
wrote:
> 
> 
>> On May 22, 2016, at 10:31 AM, Lorenzo Laneve via llvm-dev <llvm-dev
at lists.llvm.org> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> My idea is an API where anyone can build a Runtime Library for any
backend, including a set of functions people can inline/rename creating
functions the frontend can include in the IR.
>> 
>> For example implementing a cross-platform runtime function that
allocates memory for a new object. (Obviously the library will have to be
compiled for each target).
> Memory allocation is usually considered part of libc. There are several
libc implementations that target multiple architectures. musl, glibc, newlib,
diet libc to name just a few.
> 
> - Matthias
>