On Saturday, 12 January 2019 at 15:51:03 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu
wrote:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=tcyb1lpEHm0
I especially like how design by introspection was contrasted with
concepts and metaclasses, culminating in "We want to generate
more smart code, not more boilerplate. We want to generate code
that matters." Indeed. But what language features do we already
have that are as "bo-riing" as concepts and metaclasses?
What I wonder is, with design by introspection and the right mix
of other language features (e.g. `alias`, `alias this`, mixins,
etc...), what traditional language features can be removed from
the compiler and delegated to library facilities? For example,
https://theartofmachinery.com/2018/08/13/inheritance_and_polymorphism_2.html
Because design by introspection allows us to "assemble programs
atomically", perhaps high-level language features like classes
and interfaces can become obsolete, and the language itself can
be reduced simpler primitives that don't require the overhead of
a runtime.
Mike
