Google's Chrome ditches Microsoft's compiler for Clang on Windows
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Updated November 22nd, 2019
Published March 6th, 2018
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Google’s Chrome browser for Windows 10 is no longer built using Microsoft’s C++ compiler on Windows. The firm has now moved to using the Clang compiler, the same as it uses for MacOS, Linux and Android.
This is noteworthy because Chrome is the first Windows app of note to use Clang. While Clang is a compiler of choice on macOS and the open source Linux, Windows’ developers have long since figured Microsoft’s Visual C++ due to its strong support for Windows debugging and diagnostic tools.
Google decided to move to Clang despite all that, so it would only deal with one set of quirks. The firm improved Clang support o Windows to support, with some help from Microsoft, building it up into a first class experience on the rival firm’s platform.
Google still uses Microsoft’s C++ platform Library at the moment but plans to move over Clang’s LLVM linker as soon as it can.
You can check out the full technical details on Ars Technica.
