[boost] Re: Formal Review: FOREACH macro

From: Andrei Alexandrescu (See Website For Email) (SeeWebsiteForEmail_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-05-04 16:54:31

Arkadiy Vertleyb wrote:
> Just out of curiosity: can you write a library that would require to
> pre-process your user's C++ text with one of these tools, and then convince
> anybody to use this library?
> 
> If Perl is better then C++ preprocessor, then it should become C++
> preprocessor.  But it needs to be built-in, otherwise these are apples
> against oranges.

I was continuing the following discussion:

Thorsten Ottosen: "Nevertheless, the preprocessor is a good way to 
generate some tedious code; just look inside boost.assign."

Arkadiy Vertleyb: "And sometimes, I think, it's _the only_ way.  If you 
are interested, please take a look at typeof_internals.htm.zip in the 
boost sandbox file vault."

Yours Truly: "The only way as long as you commit to not look outside 
C++." etc. etc.

The previous context of the conversation was the preprocessor, not 
library construction. So I felt that within the conversation my 
perspective made sense. There are other ways to generate C++ code, and 
that's what I said and substantiated.

On the other hand, I agree with your point made in another post:

"Preprocessor has an obvious advantage of availability to everybody.  I, 
for instance, am very reluctant in downloading/using tools.  I suspect 
many people are like this, too."

But then if someone continued your argument with:

"For example, you won't find on my development systems any of awk, sed, 
perl and I don't know how to use any of them. However, I am a pp lib 
expert."

then I might opine that that person could reshuffle their priorities.

Fair enough?

Andrei