VisualAge C++

XL C/C++ Advanced Edition for Mac OS X is the latest addition to IBM's growing range of C and C++ compilers.  

XL C/C++ brings the mature and proven compiler technology of VisualAge C++ to users of the Mac OS X operating system. Features of this new compiler include:

• Compliance with past and present C and C++ language industry standards including ISO C 1999 (International Standard ISO/IEC 9899:1999), also known as C99, and ISO C++ 1998 (International Standard ISO/IEC 14882:1998).
• Ability to generate code specifically optimized for the Apple Power Mac G5.
• Binary compatibility and coexistance with gcc 3.3, including:
  • Ability to use of GNU C/C++ header files, the GNU linker, and the GNU assembler during compilation.
  • Ability of compiled programs to use GNU C and C++ run-time libraries.
  • Compatibility between g++ objects and object files compiled with XL C/C++.
  • Ability to use gdb to debug programs, and gprof to profile programs.
    
• Features specific to the Mac OS X environment, including support for:
  • Frameworks, such as Carbon APIs for C.
  • AltiVec programming interface.
  • Integration with the Xcode development environment.
  • Documentation integration with the native Mac OS X help architecture.
• Industry-leading optimization and performance, using tools and compiler options proven on previous IBM C and C++ compilers, including:
  • Various levels of the -O compiler option, that you can use to select mild to very aggressive program optimization, including the invocation of some or all of the compiler optimization options that follow below.
  • -qpdf compiler option to enable Profile-Directed Feedback, which can use results from sample program execution to fine tune optimizations in conditional branches and frequently-executed code sections.
  • -qipa compiler option to enable the Interprocedural Analysis tool, which can help the compiler optimize across multiple source files on a "whole-program" basis.
  • -qarch, -qtune, and -qcache compiler options that let you tune your application to specific processor architectures and environments.
  • -qhot compiler option that enables high-order transformations to improve the performance of  loops in your program.
• Interlanguage calls between XL C/C++ and Fortran let you include C and C++ code segments in your Fortran programs, and Fortran code segments in your C and C++ programs.
• Comprehensive and searchable documentation set integrated into the Apple Help Center, and also available in the following formats:
  • Text readme files
  • Man pages
  • HTML files
  • PDF books
    

Technology Previews - Support for OpenMP V2.0 APIs and Objective-C

XL C/C++ includes a technology preview of OpenMP support.  Open MP is a specification of industry-standard APIs that support symmetric multiprocessor programming in C, C++, and Fortran. These APIs provide a simple and flexible interface for developing shared-memory parallel applications on any supporting platform.

XL C/C++ has been extended to support using the Objective-C programming language to write to the Cocoa frameworks.