cp-01 — Environment Setup & Toolchain

Install and verify the C++/LLVM toolchain. Mandatory first lab — every other lab depends on these tools and the concepts taught here.

Read First

CONCEPTS.md — the 8-part framework: toolchains, target triples, Apple Clang vs upstream LLVM, Mach-O vs ELF, sysroots, CMake.
docs/analysis.md — design tradeoffs and what to choose when.
references.md — official docs and further reading.

Then Walk The Steps

steps/01-verify-xcode-clt.md — Apple's command-line toolchain.
steps/02-install-cmake-and-ninja.md — build-system generator and executor.
steps/03-install-homebrew-llvm.md — upstream LLVM with full SDK.
steps/04-verify-end-to-end.md — single script that confirms everything.

Quick Verify (TL;DR)

If you're already comfortable with everything in CONCEPTS.md and just want to confirm your setup:

./scripts/verify.sh

If green, move to ../cp-02-arithmetic-evaluator/. If anything's red, open the relevant step.

Lab-Specific Docs

docs/execution.md — every install command in one place.
docs/observation.md — how to inspect Mach-O binaries, find LLVM include paths, understand clang -v output.
docs/verification.md — the exact checks verify.sh performs, with expected outputs.
docs/broader-ideas.md — cross-compilation, Docker for Linux validation, LLVM-from-source.

Outcomes

You leave this lab with:

A working C++17/20 toolchain via Apple Clang.
A working LLVM 18+ installation via Homebrew, plus llvm-config, opt, llc, lli, mlir-opt.
CMake 3.20+ and Ninja installed.
Environment variables (LLVM_HOME, LLVM_DIR, MLIR_DIR) configured.
The mental model for what a toolchain is and the difference between a compiler driver, frontend, optimizer, backend, assembler, and linker.