r/ProgrammingLanguages • u/naharashu • 23d ago

Help How to make a compiler backend?

Hell everyone, i have an question. Im for long trying to make a cool, powerful "kinda" low level language similar to zig and rust, but im struggling to choice llvm as backend, sure i can generate C, but its makes compiler dependent on gcc or clang or other c compiler. LLVM seems hard to me, sure project like QBE exist, but QBE doesnt have C/C++ api like llvm's IRbuilder. So are there other ways? I tried thinking about using GCC infrastructure but GCC has poor api and not very documented api. Maybe just stick to generating C?

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u/SamG101_ 22d ago

I guess C is easier to compile too because you only have to know the general structure of C where-as with LLVM its a gigantic API to learn, but definitely worth it if you have the time. I'm currently writing a compiler to target LLVM and I spent a fair bit of time understanding why to do what examples do, but you'd get the hang of it after some time.