Templates and Constants
Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 8:34 am
This is a two-parter. The first feature, and I don't think I need to make much of an argument in favor of this one, is the ability to have templates. Pre-commented files customized with your name, copyright information, etc. Considering I use the same basic combination of rules a lot (the core element of my files is usually called "BASE", I often name my startshape "SCENE"), it would certainly make my life easier.
I have a hunch that there'll be more opposition to the second, because it bends the Context-Free part- constants. Very often, I'll use the same value in multiple places, as a scaling factor, a weighting, translation value, or what-have-you. Then, I decide I don't like it, and now, I have to change twenty locations in order to make that simple change. Constants would be a valuable shorthand, and really, they could be done not as an addition to the CFDG, but as a pre-processor directive. A literal substitution a la C pre-processor commands.
I have a hunch that there'll be more opposition to the second, because it bends the Context-Free part- constants. Very often, I'll use the same value in multiple places, as a scaling factor, a weighting, translation value, or what-have-you. Then, I decide I don't like it, and now, I have to change twenty locations in order to make that simple change. Constants would be a valuable shorthand, and really, they could be done not as an addition to the CFDG, but as a pre-processor directive. A literal substitution a la C pre-processor commands.