Compile time executable calling?

[Ary Borenszweig]

On 7/15/13 2:03 PM, Ali Çehreli wrote:
> On 07/13/2013 09:05 AM, Ary Borenszweig wrote:
>
>  > What would actually be cool is to run any kind of code at compile time
>  > (within a sandbox, if you want). For example reading a mysql database
>  > and generating classes for the tables at compile time. No need to run a
>  > separate executable and remember to run it before compiling your
> program.
>
> Humans make mistakes all the time, especially with repetitive tasks.
> That's why such tasks are handled by tools like 'make'.
>
> Ali

Why have CTFE at all if you can produce the desired code with an 
external program, output it to some file and then use it with 
import("file")? Just use 'make'.

I believe a programming language should be as self-contained as possible 
for building an executable out of it. The more you can do within the 
language itself, minimizing external dependencies, the better. Because 
users need only to understand the language. They don't need to 
understand make, build systems and whatnot.

But that's just my opinion...