The future of Clang-based tooling

By Peter Goodman

Clang is a marvelous compiler; it’s a compiler’s compiler! But it isn’t a toolsmith’s compiler. As a toolsmith, my ideal compiler would be an open book, allowing me to get to everywhere from anywhere. The data on which my ideal compiler would operate (files, macros, tokens), their eventual interpretation (declarations, statements, types), and their relations (data flow, control flow) would all be connected.

On its own, Clang does not do these things. libClang looks like an off-the-shelf, …

book clang compiler data files future isn macros peter tokens tooling types