Re: Compiler support for preprocessors (was: Using noweb with sml)

Michael Siff <siff@cs.wisc.edu> wrote:
>I am attempting to use noweb with sml. The notangle program has an
>optional argument, -L, which according to the noweb documentation, "emit
>pragmas that inform the compilers of the placement of lines in the noweb
>soruce." ...These pragmas are fine for C. But how can I get the SML compiler
>to recognize them?


Years ago, I lobbied the implementors of Standard ML of New Jersey for
a formal comment or other feature by which to achieve this goal. They
were not interested, in part I think because of a belief that ``one
should not have preprocessors generate ML code; one should use
functors or higher-order functions.'' I love functors and
higher-order functions, but I don't believe they are the best solution
to every problem.


Pester your favorite compiler writers and language designers to get
support for line-number pragmas. It is relatively easy to implement
(I added it to SRC Modula-3), and it is useful for all kinds of
preprocessors (e.g., yacc clones), not just for literate-programming
tools.


--
Norman Ramsey
http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/nr
--

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