Metaprogramming

Part 1: Introduction into Metaprogramming and Code generation

This article will be mostly an introduction into the two topics. There will be several examples in different programming languages to help give you a better understanding of the topics, and hopefully get you excited to start using them yourself (hint: you probably already do).

Metaprogramming can help make your code contain less repetition, and improve code readability. And in some cases it can make you feel like a wizard.

Metaprogramming simply means to write programs that write programs. An analogy that is often used is the car factory.

Imagine yourself as someone who builds cars, and one day you notice that the steps you are performing can be automated. So you decide to automate this process, and in the process you build a car factory. But again you notice that building your factory involves similar steps as well, so you automate them, building a factory that builds factories that builds cars. This is metaprogramming.

Don’t worry if some of these terms are not familiar. This article contains descriptions and examples to most of the topics mentioned above.

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