Hi, earlier today I was wondering about the best way to write some Transact-SQL code. I normally write code in C#, Python and lately Clojure. Even though TSQL is a decent procedural extension to SQL, it still feels very cumbersome to the languages I use daily. Having done some C# code generation lately (using ScriptTemplate), I was thinking about doing the same thing for SQL.
At which point I remembered Scriptjure (and Parenscript) and thought about writing something similar for TSQL. Google didn't reveal any already written such generators - I guess I'll have to come up with one, which I expect to be kind of fun. The bigger question is, why isn't this way (generate a Lisp datastructure that describes in a convenient way the syntax tree of the code to emit, then emit the actual code by walking the datastructure) of abstracting away syntax problems in programming languages more common? I can understand why it's not available for C# - losing code completion is a big disadvantage, but what about (T)SQL and others? Or it is actually an often used trick, but the tools used are written 'in-house' and not made public? I'll be very grateful for any input on the pros and cons of such an approach. The pros I see are the ability to construct the data structure using all the tools Clojure/Lisp offer in this area (quasiquotation and its many friends, for instance). The ability to output code that is pretty printed in a customized way is also a big plus (I care a great deal about the readability of the generated code). Also, the SQL flavor could be a pretty printing parameter - thus making it possible to write code that will run on many RDBMSs - but I'm not very hopeful about this, as differences between SQL dialects often go beyond syntax. Cons: I'm afraid of getting the SQL generating syntax wrong and making the data structures used for generation ugly. But I guess that can be fixed by iterating a little. :-) Thanks, -- Miron Brezuleanu --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
