Macros

[Eljay-pga]

How does C++ Syntax 2 obviate macros and/or the need for macros?

C++ macros make me cry.

[hsutter]

Cpp2 doesn't support writing macros. It does allow using normal C++ (aka Cpp1) macros, but I find I use them fairly rarely.

I haven't eliminated all the reasons to write text macros, but most have been replaced by two main things:

• that C++20/23/26 already have been greatly increasing what constexpr/consteval functions can do; and
• reflection (available in cppfront, and just now starting to become available in standard C++ in C++26) including using reflection to author classes (Cpp2 metaclasses which also should come into standard C++ post-C++26 because most of what it needs is now already in C++26).

(Fun fact: Both C++20 consteval and C++26 reflection came from the Cpp2 work before it got the name Cpp2 and before there was cppfront, via Andrew Sutton's team's Lock3 reflection implementation work in a Clang fork. consteval came directly from that work when Andrew noticed the need for it and proposed the keyword and semantics for the standard. C++26 reflection also came from it when Dan Katz took Andrew's team's Clang implementation and then did a huge amount of further proposal-writing and implementation work to carry reflection the rest of the way across the finish line into C++26. Thanks again, Andrew's team and Dan and Daveed and Matus and everyone who worked on reflection!)