Metacode mechanics

[David Medlock]

Georg Wrede wrote:

<snip>
> So I suggest that we:
> 
>  - continue developing the current D metalanguage
>  - continue to have both Don's and Phobos' regexps
>  - in this NG start the development of requirements for KBDM
> 
> KBDM being Kick-Butt D Metalanguage. :-)

This is a very good idea, as code-which-generates-code is the heart of 
some powerful techniques(Lisp/Scheme macros among them).

To make them truly work however one of the following is really needed:

1. Runtime evaluation, as in scripting type languages.  In this case all 
you need is a function which returns a string.

2. A _uniform_ way to represent all the constructs of the language. 
This works in Lisp because everything is a List(actually a CONS cell), 
and you can simply walk the tree checking for symbols and generating 
code as needed.

D is much simpler than C++, I will agree wholeheartedly. However, I fear 
that such a language strapped on to D would be rife with kludges to 
accomodate its (relatively)complex syntax.

Cheers.
-DavidM