[jcranmer]

Chris Lattner suggested it back when gcc was first working on LTO, and clang didn't exist. 2004 or 2005-ish, IIRC. Back then, he was still working at UIUC.

Apple pushed clang as a competitor to gcc much later, closer to 2010-ish.

[mitchty]

I'm curious then how the email from Chris in 2005 comes from his apple.com email address?

https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2005-11/msg00888.html

Doesn't seem to add up with your proposed timeline. Care to explain?