llvm dev - Mar 2016 - constant folding-like optimization at compile time

Hi everyone!

I am new to llvm and excuse me if this is a wrong question for this forum.

I am trying to design a front end for my own programming language using the
LLVM infrastructure for a personal project. It's a very simple procedural
language for now; no object oriented business.

I am playing around with a simple concept and was wondering if it's
possible to implement it in the LLVM environment.

Consider I have a simple declaration statement.

float array a[sqrt(9)];

Is it possible to evaluate "sqrt(9)" before generating LLVM IR by
calling
some math library function? This is still compile time and way before the
JIT kicks in, so I won't be able to take advantage of the JIT. In other
words, the LLVM IRBuilder would probably see something like -- "float array
a[3];", and won't even know that "sqrt(9)" existed. Only my
parser would be
aware of its existence.

Let me know if this is possible.

Thanks,
Pranav
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
<http://lists.llvm.org/pipermail/llvm-dev/attachments/20160317/c7f596ba/attachment.html>

Of course, but it's nothing to do with LLVM, it's purely about normal
programming in your front end in whatever language you are using.

Assuming you have some suitable classes defined for your parse tree you'll
write something like this:

if node.type = functionType and
   node.fn.name = "sqrt" and
   node.fn.args.len = 1 and
   node.fn.args[0].isConstant
then
   float result = sqrt(node.fn.args[0].constantValue)
   replaceNode(node, newLiteralNode(result))
endif

.. just using whatever sqrt funtion your programming language has built in.


On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 12:33 AM, Pranav Kuber via llvm-dev <
llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:
> Hi everyone!
>
> I am new to llvm and excuse me if this is a wrong question for this forum.
>
> I am trying to design a front end for my own programming language using
> the LLVM infrastructure for a personal project. It's a very simple
> procedural language for now; no object oriented business.
>
> I am playing around with a simple concept and was wondering if it's
> possible to implement it in the LLVM environment.
>
> Consider I have a simple declaration statement.
>
> float array a[sqrt(9)];
>
> Is it possible to evaluate "sqrt(9)" before generating LLVM IR by
calling
> some math library function? This is still compile time and way before the
> JIT kicks in, so I won't be able to take advantage of the JIT. In other
> words, the LLVM IRBuilder would probably see something like -- "float
array
> a[3];", and won't even know that "sqrt(9)" existed. Only
my parser would be
> aware of its existence.
>
> Let me know if this is possible.
>
> Thanks,
> Pranav
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> LLVM Developers mailing list
> llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org
> http://lists.llvm.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/llvm-dev
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
<http://lists.llvm.org/pipermail/llvm-dev/attachments/20160318/36480b0c/attachment.html>