iodcpp / symbol

Foundations of symbol based programming

iod::symbol

This library implements the basics of symbol based programming. Symbols are a new C++ paradigm that allow you to simply implement introspection, serialization, named parameters, and other things that are very hard / impossible to build in classic C++.

A symbol is defined with a macro function :

IOD_SYMBOL(my_symbol)
IOD_SYMBOL(my_symbol2)

And provides some operators :

// Named Variable declaration.
auto v = iod::make_variable(s::my_symbol, 42);
assert(v.my_symbol == 42);

// Symbol introspection
assert(!strcmp(iod::symbol_string(v), "my_symbol"));

// Member access.
assert(iod::symbol_member_access(v, s::my_symbol) == 42);  

// Method call
struct {
  int my_symbol(int a) { return x + a; }
  int x;
} obj{40};

assert(iod::symbol_method_call(obj, s::my_symbol, 2) == 42);

// Introspection on objects.
assert(iod::has_member(obj, s::my_symbol))
assert(!iod::has_member(obj, s::my_symbol2))