Have you ever wished you could write a program that would write programs for you? A program that writes other programs is called a metaprogram. Both C and C++ actually do include the ability to do certain forms of metaprogramming!
You've already seen some forms of metaprogramming in C++, using
templates to generate data structures that can handle any type.
A nifty feature called template specialization allows you to specify a different implementation of a template for a special type:
And in both C and C++, the macro processor allows you to do some basic metaprogramming (like conditionally compiling code):
Happy meta-programming!
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Alex
49 Dover St. #37, Somerville, MA 02144, USA
