Tell me more ×
Programmers Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for professional programmers interested in conceptual questions about software development. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 5 down vote favorite
1

I heard that Apple is going to replace the GNU compiler built into Xcode with a new compiler. What is the new compiler and what type of changes can we expect to see?

share|improve this question
2  
Strictly speaking, GCC is not "built into" XCode. Along with all the other command-line developer tools, it's installed into /Developer/usr/bin/, and exists independently of XCode. – Mike Baranczak Jan 29 '12 at 18:27
@MikeBaranczak thanks for the clarification! – William Saults Jan 29 '12 at 18:31

migrated from stackoverflow.com Jan 29 '12 at 17:56

1 Answer

up vote 15 down vote accepted

It's clang, it's hosted at www.llvm.org. The transition is already well underway -- GCC 4.2 has already been dropped, although GCC 4.2 + LLVM is still shipped with the current release.

  • It already has a good amount of C++11 support
  • It's fast
  • It uses less memory
  • It powers Xcode 4's code sense and fixits
  • GCC drop-in replacement (it doesn't offer every option)
  • Error messages are easily interpreted
  • Components of the llvm toolset have shipped with Xcode for years now (optimizers, static analysis)

There's too much to list, but the links above should be a good start.

share|improve this answer
Excellent feedback! Thank you! – William Saults Jan 29 '12 at 17:45
@William you're welcome – justin Jan 29 '12 at 17:47

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.