[erlang-questions] Getting rid of the preprocessor

[Vlad Dumitrescu]

On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 2:38 PM, Max Bourinov <bourinov@REDACTED> wrote:
> You are right, it is nearly impossible to properly work with macros in
> IDE. I never tried erlide. Does it give any coding performance boost? I use
> sublime2 and emacs. Most of Erlangers uses Emacs (as far as I know).

Well, there's a whole bunch of them at Ericsson use erlide, plus
others that I only have fragmentary information. Of course, I believe
that an IDE helps the development process, but I know that it is a
controversial question. Some people like it, some don't.

> About your example: You can agree within your team which macros you will use
> and which not. For example:
> 1. No complicated code snippets in macros - this is good for code
> simplicity.
> 2. All atoms that are flying between modules must be in macros. Or even
> better - use records for that.
> Simple rules - simple code. Macros are good. They are cool. Use right tool
> and you have no problems.

Yes, that would be good enough for me -- but as a generic tool
provider, I can't force people to follow any rules. There is also the
issue of legacy code, that nobody will touch as long as it works.

Anyway, the simple usage you describe above doesn't require a
preprocessor, these could be handled inside the language with some
additions to the compiler. This would enforce the cleanliness and I
don't think anybody would feel sorry about that. For the dirty work,
the preprocessor could still be there, if needed.

regards,
Vlad