On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 12:19 PM, Sandro Magi <[email protected]> wrote:

> Well, before even starting down this rabbit hole, it seems like the
> first question one should ask is what problems do you see reflection
> solving, that aren't readily solvable by current language mechanisms.
>
> Ultimately, reflection-based programs largely seem like poorly
> specified, bug-ridden type functions.
>

Agreed. I can see the purpose of a first-class debugger+reflection API, for
supervisor meta-software or library introspection tools. However, I prefer
other types of meta-work to be done via compile-time-metaprogramming,
aspect oriented intercepts, or transparent proxy-generation.

I do think there is a distinct lack of proper first-class compile time
metaprogramming facilities in languages (something more like in D or
Nemerle). For example, sometimes I'll workaround Java/C#'s lack of
compile-time-metaprogramming by using reflection -- but only because it's
simpler than adding and supporting a code-generator program to the build.

What kinds of use cases for reflection are you thinking about?
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