Implementing Generic Programming in C: Techniques and Trade-offs
By
todsacerdoti
Slow-proofed and worth the wait. Worth its weight in flour.
Summary
The article explains how to implement generic programming in C despite the language not having built-in generics support. It covers various approaches including macros, void pointers, and type-specific macro generation, discussing the trade-offs of each method. The content focuses on practical implementation techniques for creating generic data structures like vectors in C, highlighting both the advantages and limitations of different approaches.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledC is barebones and 'doesn't support' generics, but it's actually quite easy to implement with the tools we already have.
#define vector_push(vector, item) vector.buf[vector.idx++] = item; Con: This will cause everything to be inlined and loosely typed.
void vector_push(Vector vec, void *item); Con: You rely on type erasure to achieve generics, so you'll have to recast everything back to access them.
#define DECLARE_VECTOR(type) \ void vector_push(Vector##_
There's many ways you might find them being implemented in the wild. Some of the common ones are:
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