Like C++? Not afraid of quirky build systems? Seeking LLVM co-maintainers

[David Airlie]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jon Masters" <jcm at redhat.com>
> To: "Development discussions related to Fedora" <devel at lists.fedoraproject.org>
> Cc: "Michel Alexandre Salim" <salimma at fedoraproject.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, 9 May, 2012 10:57:30 PM
> Subject: Re: Like C++? Not afraid of quirky build systems? Seeking LLVM	co-maintainers
> 
> On 05/06/2012 02:29 AM, Michel Alexandre Salim wrote:
> 
> > LLVM is becoming an increasingly integral part of our distribution
> > (with mesa now using it to build the LLVMpipe renderer, for
> > example)
> > that I don't really feel comfortable maintaining it mostly by
> > myself.
> 
> Thanks for the private email about ARM stuff. I've just kicked off
> another scratch build for ARM LLVM that might fix our outstanding
> problems. I'm ok - vaguely - in being a co-maintainer on ARM if there
> is
> nobody else on our end who can represent ARM (as it seems). I started
> going through some of its design over the weekend, in my copious
> non-existent spare time to try to understand the ARM bits.
> 
> More broadly though, I feel that GCC is well represented in terms of
> engineering knowledge but I'm *concerned* that we run the risk of
> growing a dependence on LLVM that is more critical than the LLVMpipe
> stuff. Before we can blink, we might need LLVM for building lots of
> other fundamental stuff. I am wondering if as a distribution we ought
> to
> have an official FESCo-debated position on LLVM use? I do not think
> Fedora has the resources to maintain two critical toolchain pieces. I
> do
> think LLVM is useful, etc. BUT its growing use is concerning.

Don't confuse llvm and clang, llvm has no equivalent in gcc world,
clang is a C compiler like gcc that uses llvm tech.

Apart from llvmpipe, we use llvm to execute vertex shaders on earlier AMD chipsets,
newer AMD GPUs are also going to use llvm as the shader compiler backend for
GLSL shaders.

AMD also have open source OpenCL work in progress, that uses the GPU driver
and LLVM.

It probably makes sense that one of myself, ajax or glisse help out packaging
llvm, but we aren't the most reliable people in terms of spare time to commit.

Dave.