[swift-evolution] Run Swift code at compile time

[Andrew Bennett]

I like this idea in principle and I know my colleague at work was wishing
for it yesterday.

C++11 has a constexpr which can be calculated at compile time, it can also
call to other functions which are constexpr.

You can make static assertions that produce a compile-time error.

Another powerful feature of this is that a function's argument or return
type could also be a constexpr.  This could allow protocols to be much
stronger and have assertions or type restrictions that are currently only
in documentation. Perhaps generic type constraints could be more expressive
too.

:+1: if it doesn't add much syntax, is safe and unsurprising I'm all for
this.

On Wed, Dec 9, 2015 at 7:01 AM, Alejandro Martinez via swift-evolution <
swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> Don't take this mail as an oficial proposal but just as some food for
> thought, I wanted to talk about this to see what you think about it.
>
> I've been following the list since the "Open Source Day" and I've seen in
> many instances proposals that could have been solved by a macro system,
> being just a temporal solution since everything can't be done just now or
> being a permanent solution if that macro system existed. Some of them may
> include the thread about "code smells", automatic wrapper synthesis or
> deriving, or even the topic about forwarding calls automatically to an
> inner object.
>
> My thinking was how difficult or viable it would be to run Swift code from
> our programs at compile time. I'm not experienced enough on computer
> languages to see it. The first time that I saw this was in a video from
> Jonathan Blow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTqZNujQOlA) and it looked
> like a really good idea. It would be much better that force people to learn
> another language (the macro language) or any other kind of preprocessor,
> instead you could use all your knowledge but just at compile time. It can
> also have good usages apart form generating code, but generating data that
> can be generated and known at compile time. And allow even to improve the
> usage of the language (maybe DSL) at a library level.
>
> Blow seems like is going one step further and allowing the program to call
> the compiler as if it was a library and even he talks about allowing it to
> modify the AST, which is maybe going a little to far away.
>
> Anyway, that's the idea. Obviously is not something to be done in the near
> future.
>
> And sorry if it doesn't make any sense and I'm just making you lose your
> time.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alejandro Martínez
> @alexito4
> http://alejandromp.com
>
>
>
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