Chapter 12. Macros and Metaprogramming
What Is Metaprogramming?
Metaprogramming is the use of code to modify or create other code. It is primarily a developer tool and acts as a force multiplier, allowing large amounts of predictable code to be generated from just a few statements in the host language (or "metalanguage"). It is extremely useful for automating repetitive, boilerplate code.
Most programming languages support some form of metaprogramming. C has a preprocessor and C++ has templates. Java has annotations and aspect-oriented programming extensions. Scripting languages have "eval" statements. Most languages have some sort of API that can be used to introspect or modify the core language features (such as classes and methods). As a last ...
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