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| <!--*********************************************************************--> |
| <h1>"libc++" C++ Standard Library</h1> |
| <!--*********************************************************************--> |
| |
| <p>libc++ is a new implementation of the C++ standard library, targeting |
| C++0X.</p> |
| |
| <p>All of the code in libc++ is available under the standard |
| <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html#license">LLVM |
| License</a>, a "BSD-style" license.</p> |
| |
| <!--=====================================================================--> |
| <h2 id="goals">Features and Goals</h2> |
| <!--=====================================================================--> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>Correctness as defined by the (currently draft) C++0X standard.</li> |
| <li>Fast execution.</li> |
| <li>Minimal memory use.</li> |
| <li>Fast compile times.</li> |
| <li>ABI compatibility with gcc's libstdc++ for some low-level features |
| such as exception objects, rtti and memory allocation.</li> |
| <li>Extensive unit tests.</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <!--=====================================================================--> |
| <h2 id="why">Why a new C++ Standard Library for C++'0x?</h2> |
| <!--=====================================================================--> |
| |
| <p>After its initial introduction, many people have asked "why start a new |
| library instead of contributing to an existing library?" (like Apache's |
| libstdcxx, GNU's libstdc++, STLport, etc). There are many contributing |
| reasons, but some of the major ones are:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><p>From years of experience (including having implemented the standard |
| library before), we've learned many things about implementing |
| the standard containers which require ABI breakage and fundamental changes |
| to how they are implemented. For example, it is generally accepted that |
| building std::string using the "short string optimization" instead of |
| using Copy On Write (COW) is a superior approach for multicore |
| machines (particularly in C++'0x, which has rvalue references). Breaking |
| ABI compatibility with old versions of the library was |
| determined to be critical to achieving the performance goals of |
| libc++.</p></li> |
| |
| <li><p>Mainline libstdc++ has switched to GPL3, a license which the developers |
| of libc++ cannot use. libstdc++ 4.2 (the last GPL2 version) could be |
| independently extended to support C++'0x, but this would be a fork of the |
| codebase (which is often seen as worse for a project than starting a new |
| independent one). Another problem with libstdc++ is that it is tightly |
| integrated with G++ development, tending to be tied fairly closely to the |
| matching version of G++.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li><p>STLport and the Apache libstdcxx library are two other popular |
| candidates, but both lack C++'0x support. Our experience (and the |
| experience of libstdc++ developers) is that adding support for C++0x (in |
| particular rvalue references and move-only types) requires changes to |
| almost every class and function, essentially amounting to a rewrite. |
| Faced with a rewrite, we decided to start from scratch and evaluate every |
| design decision from first principles based on experience.</p> |
| |
| <p>Further, both projects are apparently abandoned: STLport 5.2.1 was |
| released in Oct'08, and STDCXX 4.2.1 in May'08.</p> |
| |
| </ul> |
| |
| <!--=====================================================================--> |
| <h2 id="requirements">Platform Support</h2> |
| <!--=====================================================================--> |
| |
| <p>libc++ is known to work on the following platforms, using g++-4.2 and |
| clang (lack of C++0X language support disables some functionality).</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>Mac OS X i386</li> |
| <li>Mac OS X x86_64</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <!--=====================================================================--> |
| <h2 id="dir-structure">Current Status</h2> |
| <!--=====================================================================--> |
| |
| <p>libc++ is still under development. It has about 98% of |
| <a href="http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2010/n3126.pdf">N3126</a> |
| implemented/tested. C++'98 support is fully featured, and most of C++'0x |
| support is as well. The only major missing piece of C++'0x support is |
| <code><atomic></code>.</p> |
| |
| <p>libc++ is currently dependent upon a separate library for the low-level |
| ABI compatibility with gcc. As a workaround it can be linked against |
| gcc's libstdc++, or on Mac OS X |
| <a href="http://home.roadrunner.com/~hinnant/libcppabi.zip">this library</a>.</p> |
| |
| <p><a href="libcxx_by_chapter.pdf">Here</a> is a by-chapter breakdown of what |
| is passing tests and what isn't. This chart is currently based on testing |
| against g++-4.4.0 with -std=c++0x. </p> |
| |
| <!--=====================================================================--> |
| <h2>Get it and get involved!</h2> |
| <!--=====================================================================--> |
| |
| <p>To check out the code, use:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><code>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/libcxx/trunk libcxx</code></li> |
| <li><code>cd libcxx/lib</code></li> |
| <li><code>./buildit</code></li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>To run the libc++ test suit (recommended):</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><code>cd libcxx/test</code></li> |
| <li><code>./testit</code></li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>Send discussions to the |
| (<a href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/cfe-dev">clang mailing list</a>).</p> |
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