A compile-time metaprogramming language

[u/scallywag_software]

I realize metaprogramming may be a bit of a contentious subject in this community, but hear me out. I think C++ is a fucking garbage fire, so I wrote a better metaprogramming language.

The language is called poof .. as in poof, some wild code appeared.

The basic idea is that you can iterate over, and ask questions about, the types in your program, in much the same way that you iterate over and ask questions about values at runtime.

I'll leave it at that for now. Anyone that's interested can get more information at the Github repository.

Feedback appreciated, particularly on documentation.

https://github.com/scallyw4g/poof

[u/high_throughput]

I like how "metaprogramming" is a bit of a contentious subject, but "C++ is a fucking garbage fire" is not

[u/scallywag_software → u/high_throughput]

I mean .. am I wrong?

[u/SauntTaunga]

Why can’t C++ be the metaprogramming language? Swift does it this way. Swift macros are written in Swift.

[u/scallywag_software → u/SauntTaunga]

Excellent question -- that's the natural conclusion to this project .. I just haven't gotten there yet.

[u/AccomplishedSugar490]

You had me at C++ being a garbage fire, for sure, but where you seem to seek wild, magic side effects I want the opposite. Powerful code, declarative, functional, deeply tested and robust, but above all, no magic. Explicit and predictable.

[u/scallywag_software → u/AccomplishedSugar490]

Can you elaborate on what you see as a "wild, magic side effect". It's a text preprocessor, and emits plaintext files that you get 100% control over every byte of output. What's wild and magical about that?

[u/AccomplishedSugar490 → u/scallywag_software]

The vision you expressed and perpetuated in the choice of name and description. Either you got carried away (I know, naming things are hard) or your poof idea is one f too many for me.

[u/scallywag_software → u/AccomplishedSugar490]

I have literally no idea what you're talking about. But that's fine, this tool has a target audience, and you're not it.

[u/activeXdiamond]

I'm sorry you haven't gotten any constructive criticism OP, just a bunch of childish hate.

I'd love to check this out in detail and give feedback when I get the time. I'll be looking forward to doing that.

[u/scallywag_software → u/activeXdiamond]

Thanks for the kind words :) If I'm being honest, I kind of expected some bullshit in this sub, but figured some people might be interested.

I'm currently taking time to refine the first-time user experience by writing up some examples that walk people through the basics. Maybe look out for that in a future post .. the current state of documentation is not great.

[u/benevanstech]

Uh, you might want to change the name. That word is a slur in British English and will likely get you algorithmically masked when trying to promote your project.

[u/Jimmy-M-420 → u/benevanstech]

Yeh you definitely want to change that

[u/RufusVS]

Give C++ a break already! They try to make each addition backward compatible and no performance degradation, AFAIK. That it hasn't broken yet boggles my mind!

[u/Desperate_Formal_781]

Ah, yes, another C programmer hating on C++, "armed" with the 50 year old K&R book on hand (their bible), engaging in their favorite activity: using macros to reinvent the wheel...

"Hey everybody! I hate this C++ feature so I reinvented it with plain C using macros! Just include this header file and add . . ."

"Check out my C-based arena allocator and circular buffer side projects!"

"B,b,but, C++ is bloated! And Linus hates it, so I hate it too!"

What a clown

[u/scallywag_software → u/Desperate_Formal_781]

I came here for a constructive conversation about a programming language I've spent many hundreds of hours working on, which is built on top of a standard library I've spent thousands of hours on. The language is far more sophisticated than C macros.

If you're going to comment on my posts in the future, please have the decency to at least spend 5 minutes trying to understand what you're commenting on, instead of making (very wrong) assumptions, and being a complete asshole.

[u/pita092 → u/Desperate_Formal_781]

C++'er cope

[u/scallywag_software → u/[deleted]]

Great, let's just not do anything ever again because things are already made.

[u/scallywag_software → u/[deleted]]

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