Configuring Meta-Programming

[Mark S]

Hi Dieter,

A bespoke app for each user is fine, but I want to include the configurable CRC library as just a dependency, and not stored or versioned with the app. So the configuration parameters would live with the app, not the library.

My naive solution was to put the parameters in a custom text file.  I'm thinking that creating an include file (.hrl) containing -define() macros would be more Erlangish, but still a separate file to maintain.  Maybe the configuration belongs in the app's rebar.config file?

My ideal solution would be something in the app code that gets evaluated at compile time, and injects the configuration parameters into the library. I didn't mention this before, but I would like this library to be easily used with Elixir apps also.

Good idea about runtime introspection.  I had not considered that before.

Thanks!
Mark

> Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2021 12:27:10 +0100
> From: Dieter Sch?n <dieter@REDACTED>
>
> Hi Mark,
>
> so instead of each user configures his/her environment, you will have to
> build a bespoke app for each user.
>
> You will have to know the desired configuration for each user, and build
> a custom version for each variant.
>
> The technical part is relatively easy, I think. The parameters can be
> implemented as -define(ParamX, ValueY).
>
> Maybe add some -ifdef, if the configuration is complex.
>
> And, from a CM perspective, I would definitely have everything in
> version-controlled files.
>
> No ad-hoc commandline switch-triggered artifacts.
>
> Also, for runtime introspection, add a function which outputs the
> configuration parameters of the module.
>
>   From my experience, in a commercial environment,
>
> you should be most concerned how to be able to reliable and reproducible
>
> build a version. And to be able to track which versions are in use where.
>
>
> kind regards,
>
> dieter
>
>
> On 29.01.21 15:25, Mark S wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm looking for advice on how to configure code generated at compile
>> time.? My current solution reads the configuration values from a file,
>> but the feedback I received indicates that requiring users to create
>> and maintain a config file, in order to use this library, will at the
>> very least, severely limit its usefulness.
>>
>> Is there another way to introduce configuration values at compile
>> time?? Is there a library you can point me to, that has resolved the
>> same issue differently?
>>
>> Specifically, I created code that generates a module, containing a
>> custom Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) calculation function that
>> utilizes a CRC look-up table.? Creating the function and the look-up
>> table requires specifying the bit width, polynomial, initial value,
>> final XOR value, and whether the input and output values are reflected
>> or not.
>>
>> To generate the code module, I used Ulf Wiger's parse_trans library.
>> In particular, ct_expand:term() to generate the look-up table, and
>> codegen:gen_module() to generate the code and finally calling
>> merl:compile() to compile the abstract syntax tree, generated by
>> gen_module().
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Mark Sebald
>