Re: [boost] [preprocessor] "How macro expansion works", comments

From: Tobias Schwinger (tschwinger_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-02-15 07:55:51

Paul Mensonides wrote:
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: boost-bounces_at_[hidden] 
>>[mailto:boost-bounces_at_[hidden]] On Behalf Of Tobias Schwinger
> 
> 
>>There should be some sort of disclaimer in the documentation 
>>of Boost.PP that mentions that the design is most 
>>unfortunately influenced by the bad quality of some widely 
>>used preprocessors. 
>>Otherwise there will be false conclusions that 
>>pp-metaprogramming is either ugly by definition or that there 
>>is something wrong with the design of the library...
> 
> 
> Well, the design is certainly influenced by typical preprocessors.  However, the
> design is not completely inelegant.  The fundamental problems with the design of
> the library as is are more related to a lack of an extensibility model.  Even
> with preprocessors the way they are, I still could hide all of the algorithm
> states completely, and that would make everything more usable, but it would also
> make everything slower (to varying degrees on various preprocessors).
> 

I said neither "Boost.PP's design is entirely inelegant" nor "the next dimension parameters suck". 

The parts that are inelegant IMO are the vertical dependencies and coupling of algorithms and data structures. If I understood you correctly, so far, it isn't possible to change it without narrowing portability.

> I'll address your comments about the article in a separate post.  I re-rendered
> the entire article as plain text from the XML source, mailed it to myself to
> make it quote correctly, replied by inserting your comments.  Thus, the entire
> article will be in my reply, all of your quotes, and my responses to them.

They're just some instruction based on what I /believe/ would make the text more understandable. However, I'm not entirely unfamiliar with the topic and someone who is would probably give a better proof-reader than I do.

BTW. There were some people organizing themselfes as "documentation helpers" on this list recently (see http://tinyurl.com/783k9).

Regards,

Tobias