Most of my work on this is on paper, and some code sketeches. There quite a few non-trivial issues, and hard decisions to be made. Since I have the knack of loosing or recycling the various paper bits lying around, I decided to keep at least some of them in my diary, aka this blog.

initial requirements

convenient syntax and semantics

convenience matters. The syntax should be obvious. The meaning of the syntax should be easy to grasp.

minimal core

the core of the macro processor should be minimal. This will help managing the code quality. The minimal core should be enriched using macros.

retargetable/multi-targets

using one and the same 'surface syntax' to produce different target code. It should be possible to have a one to many code generation. Example application - one definition producing javascript, php and sql code. Alternative example: one definition - three code targets - debug, deployment + a set of autogenerated tests

target and syntax agnostic

no assumptions should be made (at least at top level) about the target or syntax. We should be able to accomodate any theoretically parsable syntax, within reason, of course. Subject to parsing strategy selection, etc...

While reading, researching and experimenting for my macros project the terms in the title get mixed a lot. I'll try to summarise what is my understanding of a lot of the above. To be fair, most of these words are heavily overloaded with sometimes contradictory and or ovelapping meanings, so this short is only about my personal summary, no pretence for a general study or lit review.

Generic programming intuitevely corresponds to design patterns, or a tool to implement them. There should be a distinction between the functional or algorithmic side of the term and the structural or data (type) genericity.