This is a library implementing the intermediate representation FIRM developed at IPD Goos, Uni Karlsruhe. Create an architecture dependent directory (eg 'mkdir i686-linux') an cd to it. Call ../configure with wanted features (see ../configure --help for more hints). Call 'make depend; make' to construct the library. This creates a file libfirm.a To test the library goto ./testprograms and make and run the test examples placed there: make depend; make cd testprograms make make run If you have set up the include and libdir using configure you can install the library and its headers by 'make install'. This is encouraged if the library is hooked up to any other modules, e.g., a front end. Only the external headers are guaranteed to remain stable, the implementation might change. For more documentation see /include/firm.h. To generate FIRM code from a compiler frontend read the documentation in ./include/ircons.h. About Firm you can learn in UKA tech-report 1999-44.