Practical Patterns for Programmatic C Code Generation
By
ingve
Crisp on the outside, thoughtful on the inside. A keeper.
Summary
The article provides practical advice and patterns for generating C code programmatically rather than writing it manually. The author, a compiler developer, shares six key insights for producing better C code generation, including using static functions, avoiding inline assembly, preferring static over dynamic allocation, using compound literals, employing designated initializers, and leveraging C's flexible array members. The focus is on generating safer, more maintainable C code while avoiding undefined behavior pitfalls common in handwritten C.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledGenerating C is less fraught than writing C by hand, as the generator can often avoid the undefined-behavior pitfalls that one has to be so careful about when writing C by hand.
I won't be so vain as to call them 'best practices', but they are my practices.
Sometimes you will want to target a language at a higher level than just, like, assembler, and oftentimes C is that language.
Today's note is a quick summary of things that work for me.
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