Re: Re: source-to-source translators

Eric M. Hopper wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-06-16 at 09:41 -0400, Stefan Seefeld wrote:
> 
>>Can you be a bit more specific about what kind of 'ideas' to draw from
>>that ?
> 
> 
> The C++ template language is really a language all unto itself, separate
> from, but also intimately related to C++ proper.  It's a functional
> programming language.  The template arguments are the function
> parameters.  It's capable of creating C++ code at compile time by
> reasoning about and re-arranging type information.
> 
> In a sense, it does source (C++) to source (C++ again) translation of
> templates to working C++ code.

Sure, but what relevance does that have for source-to-source translation
in the context of synopsis ?

>>We seem to be talking about two different languages now. You are referring
>>to the programming language itself, while I'm talking about a language to
>>express code transformations with, i.e. 'meta-programming'.
> 
> 
> No, I was talking about the template mechanism and its relationship to C
> ++ as a whole.  In a sense, its a meta-programming language for C++.

Indeed, but I still fail to see the parallels to synopsis, as far as
the language (syntax) is concerned.

> I'm not sure how useful the ideas are for say, C++->Python translation.
> But I think the example of C++ templates is still worth keeping in mind.

What ideas specifically ?

Regards,
		Stefan