[erlang-questions] Newbie question: function include/1 undefined

[Fred Hebert]

On 10/02, Donald Steven wrote:
>Thanks Richard.  I had (alas) come to that conclusion.
>
>In c (or m4 or the like), I can include blocks of text or code quite 
>freely.  In this case, primarily as a matter of aesthetics, I wanted 
>to off load some repetitive initializations to a file which could be 
>included at the appropriate point, with a neat % comment on the side 
>to keep my head straight.  It's a big, ugly block in an otherwise 
>elegant set of funs.  I guess I'm stuck with it, as I'm reluctant to 
>make things too complicated by running the whole thing through m4 
>first before the erlang pre-processor.  I do wish it could be done 
>though.  (Dare I suggest a modest proposal?)
>

Another approach, although a bit more painful to make work and correlate 
with all scope would be to use macros:

-define(CODE_SNIPPET, begin <whatever> end).

YOu can then -include("myheader.hrl"). and just call ?CODE_SNIPPET 
inline.

Richard O'Keefe's solutions would be cleaner in the long run (and I 
definitely recommend running with that option), but this could be an 
immediate workaround for what you had in mind.