Alon Wolf :: Expressive Compile Time Parsers
Channel: CoreCppIL
Date: 2023-09-26

Presented at Core C++ 2023 conference.

Modern C++ has many language features and that can be leveraged to design an expressive API or a domain-specific language. However, these features are limited by the syntax rules of C++. To overcome this limitation, we will discuss the use of compile-time parsers to write more expressive code with zero overhead.

We will analyze open-source compile-time parsing libraries from C++11 to C++23 and compare their APIs in terms of flexibility and expressiveness. Additionally, we will delve into the techniques used in the implementation of these libraries to handle compile-time parsing under the constraints of compile-time execution.

Finally, we will highlight how these libraries can be used to reduce boilerplate and write compile-time regular expressions, parsers, parser generators, Rust's macro rules and reflection features. Attendees of this talk will gain a deeper understanding of the power and versatility of compile-time parsers in C++.

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Alon is a Senior Software Engineer at Medtronic specializing in 3D and computer graphics with a passion for high performance. He has developed many custom simulation and rendering engines for different platforms using modern C++. He also writes a C++ technical blog and participates in game jams.