MS has Windows Server running on ARM (again).
In context of the recent Web Assembly post about what platforms Delphi should support, I would rank Windows ARM support for Delphi far, far higher than WASM, since I write services running on Windows Server.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/blog/enabling-cloud-workloads-through-innovations-in-silicon/
/sub-stack (full)
I don’t know how LLVM works, but isn’t is supposed to let you compile for several targets from a kind of intermediate bitcode ?
So how complex is it to add a new LLVM target from the actual ones ?
Paul TOTH It’s the low level wiring of language specifics and getting the runtime work with platform specifics that takes the most time.
Without knowing all the dirty details I would guess that getting Delphi to compile for Windows ARM should not be that big of an issue since both pieces are already there in different combinations.
Stefan Glienke – It does leave the one question: ARC or not? If ARC, then the next question is – Why the heck don’t we get an ARC compiler for x86/x64?
In fact, EMB has an ARC compiler for x86 since the compiler for the iOS simulator works in that platform. Even more, i think this compiler is based on the x86 Delphi compiler not on LLVM.
Lars Fosdal Because some people are stupid and then want all their components and third party stuff to support that platform and have VCL working on it.
“Give him an inch and he will take an ell.”
There is no technical reason apart from “then we would have to ship yet another bunch of binaries that also have to be tested”.
There is more to it than that; the iOS Simulator is x86, yes, but is on Mac. An entire new platform isn’t trivial, whether that’s ARM, Win64 ARC, or WebAssembly. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea, they might be very good ideas, just not to underestimate the effort. If one of these is very important to you, contact us or sales, that way it goes on record 😉
The Linux compiler is x64 and ARC.