Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Macro

Abstract

Programming languages are evolving faster than ever, frequently introducing new features to support different programming techniques. One such technique is metaprogramming, broadly defined as the ability of programs to manipulate other programs as data. Since this concept can take many forms, we will first explore the diverse flavors of metaprogramming in modern languages, from Ruby’s eigenclasses to Groovy AST transformations—and as a bonus, you’ll have a reason to stop saying that “Java has reflection.” Then, we will dive into one of the most powerful and cool metaprogramming features, macros, that - standing from the shoulders of Lisp - is now gaining traction in languages like Julia, Elixir, Rust, and Scala.

Recording