we don't need no stinking selfs

[libfirm] / README

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+                                   libFirm
+                   A graph based SSA intermediate representation
 
-This is a library implementing the intermediate representation
-FIRM developed at IPD Goos, Uni Karlsruhe.
+Contents:
+1. Introduction
+2. Building and Installation
+3. Usage
+4. Contact
 
-Call make lib to construct the library.  This creates a file
-libfirm.a and extracts all necessary header files to ./include.
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-To test the library goto ./testprograms and make and run the
-test examples placed there:
+1. Introduction
 
-make lib
-cd testprograms
-make
-make run
+The Firm library implements the Firm intermediate representation (ir). An old
+description of Firm can be found in [TLB:99].
+
+libFirm contains algorithms for construction of the SSA form directly from the
+attributed syntax tree. A set of analyses and optimisation phases is provided.
+This version includes a complete backend for the IA32 architecture, as well as
+some unfinished backends for MIPS, ARM, PPC32.
+
+1.1. Features
+
+- works exculsively on a graph based SSA represenation up to the code emission.
+  Based on the work of C. Click and M. Trapp
+- written in portable C. Known to run on msvc 6-8 Win32, gcc on Linux, FreeBSD,
+  Cygwin
+- includes doxygen documentation
+- support for object oriented type hierarchies
+- Analyses: dominance, loop tree, execution frequency, control dependencies,
+            inter procedural call graph, rapid type, def-use, alias analysis,
+            class hierarchy analysis, ...
+- Optimisations: constant folding, local common subexpression elimination,
+                 global common subexpression elimination, code placement,
+                 operator strength reduction, scalar replacement, load/store,
+                 control flow optimisations, if-conversion, partial condition
+                 evaluation, reassociation, tail recursion elimination,
+                 inlining, procedure cloning, dead code elimination, ...
+- local common subexpression eliminiation, constant folding,
+  constant propagatation, arithmetic identities happen implicitely
+- extensive checkers
+- enhanced debugging support: breakpoints on node creation, entity creation,
+            graph dumping, visual studio debug extension
+- lowering of intrinsics, double word arithmetics, bitfields
+- backend with SSA based register allocation including several algorithms for
+  spilling and copy coalescing. Instruction and block scheduling, support for
+  ABI handling.
+- working ia32 backend with support for x87 and SSE2 floating point
+- unfinished backends for MIPS, ARM, PPC32
+
+- connections to the Edison Design Group C and java frontends available.
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+2. Building and Installation
+
+These are instruction for the gcc compiler on unix variants or cygwin. You need
+to have the libcore library and pkg-config installed.
+
+ 1. Change into the directory containing libfirms source
+
+ 2. Create a directory named build 'mkdir build'. Change into this directory
+    and execute the configure script. 'cd build ; ../configure'
+
+ 3. Type 'make' to compile the package
+
+ 4. You may install libfirm as super user by typing 'make install'
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+3. Usage
 
-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-??.
+"libFIRM: A Library for Compiler Optimization Reaserch Implementing
+Firm", UKA tech-report 2002-5. About Firm you can learn in UKA
+tech-report 1999-14.
+
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+4. Contact
+
+You can contact us at firm@ipd.info.uni-karlsruhe.de