Making the Clang AST Leaner and Faster
Mood
thoughtful
Sentiment
positive
Category
tech
Key topics
C++
Clang
compiler optimization
The article discusses efforts to improve the performance and memory usage of Clang's Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) by reducing unnecessary data and improving data structures.
Snapshot generated from the HN discussion
Discussion Activity
Moderate engagementFirst comment
2h
Peak period
9
Day 1
Avg / period
9
Based on 9 loaded comments
Key moments
- 01Story posted
11/12/2025, 8:02:58 PM
6d ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
11/12/2025, 9:52:03 PM
2h after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
9 comments in Day 1
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03 - 04Latest activity
11/13/2025, 5:00:18 AM
6d ago
Step 04
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https://discourse.llvm.org/t/rfc-add-an-llvm-cas-library-and...
Symptom of a symptom. Templates are abhorrent abominations. However, there’s no way to do generics without them. It just becomes a hairball mess at compile time… kudos for alleviating some of the pain in waiting.
With a trait-first implementation that mostly defers monomorphization and prefers "static if" over C++-style specialized implementations, the only hard choice is whether to optimize codegen for size or speed.
Trying to retrofit this onto standard C++ is ... not actually as difficult as you might think. The real problem is the implementation of builtins that rely heavily on "this really must be a constant during X phase of compilation".
‘requiring generics’ -> C++ Templates -> massive ASTs
Is that correct? If so I’d then wonder if the applies from strictly within the bounds of C++ the language. Is there an alternate meaning? I think there are quite a few viable ways to present what are usually called ‘generics’ at several levels of abstraction and in several programming paradigms, so any reading outside of C++ seems strange.
But, I’m afraid it will actually lead to even more heavily templated C++ in a rebound effect!
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