C++, D: Dinosaurs?

[Nick Sabalausky]

"Danny Wilson" <bluezenix at gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:op.uj26ncatbmuhq1 at danny-wilsons-ep45-ds4.local...
> Op Tue, 04 Nov 2008 02:55:41 +0100 schreef Nick Sabalausky <a at a.a>:
>
>> This is why I've recently been getting interested in high-level language
>> translation, and have been playing around with writing such a tool. I'd 
>> like
>> to be able to write code in a sensible language like D and just translate
>> that into whatever horrible scripting language the
>> sysadmin/netadmin/browser-vendor decided would be suitable.
>
>
> That sensible language already exists! Be sure to check out: haxe.org

That looks pretty good (I've come across it once before), but what I had in 
mind was a little more universal (and perhaps, more experimental or even 
naive ;) ). What I'm planing to experiment with is having a basic 
compiler/translator program which accepts language plugins that describe 
both how to parse the language and how to output it. Then the tool would go 
something like "Input HLL -> Input AST -> Intermediate AST -> Output AST -> 
Output HLL". Toss in a whole bunch of language plugins and, assuming it 
could actually be pulled off, what you'd have is something like HaXe except:

- ASP would be supported (important for me, a lot of clients are MS houses).

- The programmer (or tech lead, if applicable) could chose what they 
consider a sensible language (For instance, HaXe does look pretty good from 
what I've seen, but I prefer C-style variable declarations over HaXe's 
ECMAScript3/4-style declarations (though I could certainly live with them)).

- HLLs and platforms, in general, would be much more divorced than they are 
today. Much less chance of the choice in platform forcing/limiting your hand 
in the choice of language. HaXe just simply gives you one extra choice, and 
even then, only when you're targeting ECMAScript, Flash, PHP or some rare 
system that actually has Neko.

- It would have a name that isn't mixed case and isn't inconsistent between 
spelling and pronunciation ;)