On Fri, 13 May 2011, Joerg Schuelke wrote:
Am Fri, 13 May 2011 11:25:36 +0200 (CEST)
schrieb Michael Van Canneyt <mich...@freepascal.org>:
In short: No, it is better to keep that particular box of pandora
closed.
None of the more "modern" languages implement macros, and this is for
good reason.
Pascal has always existed without macros. It keeps code readable:
what you read is what you get.
This is a strength of the language, and should remain that way.
Yes I can live without macros too, i do it for years.
FPC has macros today, and the one of the bad way, which you do not see
in the source!! And the scanner is today checking every identifier for
macro expansion, if you switch {$MACRO ON}.
Try to remove the macro support from the compiler and we will see,
there are people around, which use them, even the ones without
parameters.
The way I suggest for macro parameters make them better:
{$I %name(some text)} makes it clear, thats a macro
expansion. In respect of readability, where is the difference to:
name(param1,param2) in pascal, where you do know
it is a function call. Thats the same.
But I don't want to encourage their use by making them "better" or "more
visible".
If I had my way, I would remove the existing ones alltogether.
The one use case they have in FPC sources could easily be remedied.
Michael.
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