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cozzyd 3 days ago

The C preprocessor allows you to define a limited DSL on top of C. This is... sometimes a good thing, and often convenient, even if it makes it hard to understand.

gitonthescene 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

I think _all_ programming is about finding an appropriate DSL for the problem at hand. First you need to understand the “language” of the problem then you develop a “lingo”.

rbanffy 2 days ago | parent [-]

Exactly. You build the language up to the problem. When you do that, the program almost writes itself.

jacquesm 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

For extremely small values of 'sometimes' where sometimes is constrained by the following expressions evaluating to 'true':

- you have no interest in maintaining your code

- your code will never be maintained by someone else

- you know your C preprocessor better than you know your C compiler

- your favorite language isn't available for this particular target

- you don't mind object level debugging

- your idea of a fun time is to spend a few hours per day memorizing code

- you really are smarter than everybody else

cozzyd 2 days ago | parent [-]

It depends how far down the rabbit hole you go.

Something like JCON (originally from mongodb, see https://blogs.gnome.org/chergert/2016/10/21/jcon/) is actually pretty nice IMO.