Adding BASIC09 front end tool to LLVM
A proposal has been submitted to add a BASIC09 frontend tool to LLVM, aiming to bring the classic BASIC09 language into the LLVM ecosystem by creating a compiler frontend that translates BASIC09 source code into LLVM IR.
Background
- BASIC09 is a structured BASIC dialect from the 1980s, used on the Motorola 6809-based OS-9 operating system (popular in industrial control, early homebrew computing, and the Tandy Color Computer ecosystem).<br>- LLVM is the core compiler infrastructure behind Clang (C/C++), Rust, Swift, and many modern languages. It typically targets contemporary architectures like x86, ARM, and RISC-V.<br>- This is a request to add a new "front end" to LLVM: a compiler that reads BASIC09 source code and translates it through LLVM's intermediate representation (IR), potentially allowing BASIC09 programs to run on modern hardware — not just the original 6809 machines.<br>- The proposal raises questions about LLVM's project scope, which traditionally focuses on modern/high-performance languages, and about what backward-compatibility commitments would be needed to support an obscure historical platform.