AST Macros?

[Jacob Carlborg]

On 2012-06-05 11:02, foobar wrote:

> This argument was raised before. That "heap of problems" is as vague as
> the proposed AST system(s).
> As far as I can tell, that heap of problems is mainly about making it
> harder to make internal breaking changes since the compiler is no longer
> a black box.
>
> Now, I'd argue that having a stable API for those compiler internals in
> needed anyway. Besides the obvious benefits of a more modular design
> that better encapsulates the different layers of the compilation
> process, it allows us to implement a compiler as a set of libraries
> which benefits the tool ecosystem, IDEs, text-editors, lint tools, etc.
> Thools which could reuse subsets of these libraries (e.g. think of
> Clang's design and how it allowed for the vim auto-complete plugin).
>
> Even _without_ the AST macros I think it's a worthy goal to pursuit, AST
> macros simply make the outcome that much sweeter.

I couldn't agree more.

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg