podcast – Mostly Erlang
060 Metaprogramming Elixir
Mar 25, 2015
Chris McCord discusses his book and the appeal, challenges, and benefits of metaprogramming in Elixir. They explore examples of building a DSL for frameworks like Phoenix and the usage of macros in testing.
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Quick takeaways
- Meta programming in Elixir allows code to be written that writes code, making it easy to dip into Elixir's data structures and produce powerful code generation.
- Macros in Elixir and Erlang provide opportunities for innovative testing approaches, enhancing code coverage, static analysis, and test generation.
Deep dives
Overview of Meta Programming in Elixir
Meta programming in Elixir allows code to be written that writes code. It offers a natural syntax over an abstract syntax tree (AST), enabling the generation of code by writing code. This AST allows code to be built like Lego building blocks, making it easy to dip into Elixir's data structures and produce powerful code generation. Unlike other languages with meta programming, Elixir's macros have a full programmable AST, simplifying the process and making it accessible to developers.
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