Metaprogramming

Metaprogramming is a programming technique in which computer programs have the ability to treat other programs as their data

• It means that a program can be designed to read, generate, analyse or transform other programs, and even modify itself while running

• In some cases, this allows programmers to minimize the number of lines of code to express a solution, in turn reducing development time

• It also allows programs greater flexibility to efficiently handle new situations without recompilation

Macros

Make your own syntax

• Happens during compile-time (before the code runs)

Example: Custom syntax

// macro (sweet.js)
syntax hi = function (ctx) {
    return #`console.log('hello, world!')`;
};

// before compile/expansion
hi

// after compile/expansion
console.log("hello, world!");

Example: Custom syntax for then

operator >>= left 1 = (left, right) => {
  return #`${left}.then(${right})`;
};

fetch('/foo.json') >>= resp => { return resp.json() }
                   >>= json => { return processJson(json) }

// Instead of
fetch("/foo.json")
  .then((resp) => {
    return resp.json();
  })
  .then((json) => {
    return processJson(json);
  });

Reflection

Example:

// Without reflection
Foo foo = new Foo();
foo.PrintHello();

// With reflection
Object foo = Activator.CreateInstance("complete.classPath.and.Foo");
MethodInfo method = foo.GetType().GetMethod("PrintHello");
method.Invoke(foo, null);

// Without reflection
const foo = new Foo();
foo.hello();

// With reflection
const foo = Reflect.construct(Foo);
const hello = Reflect.get(foo, "hello");
Reflect.apply(hello, foo, []);

// With eval
eval("new Foo().hello()");

# Without reflection
obj = Foo()
obj.hello()

# With reflection
obj = globals()["Foo"]()
getattr(obj, "hello")()

# With eval
eval("Foo().hello()")

Introspection

We have read-only access to the structure of a program

Example: Checking keys of an object

const hero = {
  health: 100,
  backpack: ["carrot", "beer"],
  weapon: "sword",
};

const keys = Object.keys(hero);

console.log(keys); // ['health', 'backpack', 'weapon']

Self-Modification

We can change the structure

Example: Modifying function at run time

function grumpySum(a, b) {
  if (a > 5) {
    grumpySum = () => 0;
  }

  return a + b;
}

console.log(grumpySum(1, 1)); // 2
console.log(grumpySum(10, 1)); // 11
console.log(grumpySum(1, 3)); // 0
console.log(grumpySum(2, 100)); // 0

Intercession

We can redefine the semantics of some language operations

Example:

const hero = {
  health: 100,
};

Object.defineProperty(hero, "status", {
  get: function () {
    if (this.health > 50) {
      return "fit like a champ";
    }

    return "badly hurt";
  },
});

console.log(hero);
// { health: 100 }

console.log(hero.status);
// 'fit like a champ'