Skip to content

Adding Reflection to C

davidpriver.com
15 pointstelotortium5 comments
On HN

Comments

Here is my proposal with a lot of similarities: https://www.open-std.org/JTC1/SC22/WG14/www/docs/n3212.pdf

BTF or DWARF info in principle contain the information needed, though working with them is cumbersome...

Been there… Pendantic nitpick: it's more akin to introspection, reflection would be self-modifying code.

Nice. But you've just invented Zig!

C with Zig's comptime is compelling though. Zig doesnt allow you to access all the features your C compiler does, and puts you in the LLVM ecosystem. I've been working on something similar; extending C with both Zig/C++ inspired reflection and linear types, with a compiler that compiles to a subset of C to allow you to leverage GCC and all its extenstions.

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.