Kcomp

Kcomp is an open-source compiler framework designed to support rapid development of domain-specific languages and experimental compilers. It provides a modular pipeline that separates frontends, a middle-end, and backends, enabling researchers and educators to prototype language features and code generation targets without rebuilding a compiler from scratch.

The project originated in 2020 from a collaboration among researchers at Techville University. It is maintained as a community-driven effort with a permissive license and a public repository that welcomes contributions from students, professors, and industry developers.

Kcomp's architecture centers on a pluggable frontend API, a language-agnostic intermediate representation, and a suite of reusable optimization and analysis passes. Backends support code generation through LLVM, WebAssembly, and native targets, while the IR remains independent of source and target to maximize reuse. The toolchain includes an incremental build system and a plugin framework for adding new analyses and transformations.

Common use cases include teaching compiler design, prototyping DSLs for data processing or scientific computing, and conducting research on optimization techniques. It is also employed as a hands-on platform in university courses to illustrate compiler construction concepts.

Community reception notes its extensibility and clear component boundaries, though newcomers may face a learning curve when working with its plugin model. As of the latest releases, documentation, tutorials, and example projects are available in the official repository.