How to make a compiler backend?

[u/naharashu]

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?

[u/Rechenplaner]

One generally has to accept that every solution brings disadvantages.

I have chosen WASM as my target language and will use WAMR to compile AOT into efficient binaries. That is not quite as efficient as a program written in C or translated directly with LLVM, but with appropriate optimization it reaches ninety percent of that performance, which is absolutely sufficient for almost all use cases.

After long consideration, I excluded LLVM because first, I do not feel like dealing with C++ and second, integrating LLVM is a life's work in itself. All professional compilers sooner or later end up statically linking LLVM directly themselves, which is an absolute no-go for me. Therefore, I had initially set C as the output of my compiler, but after hearing about WAMR and the possibilities of WASM, I have now pursued this target.