I wrote a large package of macros for a niche assembler using M4. It has some so...

throwaway_pdp09 · on April 3, 2020

I'm a fan of M4, and I don't know what these are doing but it surely looks too complex. You have defines within defines and OMG just an extract

  .. (just a snip follows)
  `define(`_'''$`'1```_LENGTH',strlenc(''$`'2``))'dnl
  `; "''$`'2``"'
  `ifdef(`PB3', ''$`'1```: calltable($4, $1, estr('''$`'2```))dnl
  return',dnl
  `table '''$`'1```#, [dec2pbhex(cstr('''$`'2```))]
  '''$`'1```: loadaddr($2, $3, _'''$`'1```_STR)
  jump __`'$5`'_handler
  _'''$`'1```_STR: load&return $1, '''$`'1```#')'
  )')'

I have to ask if this is right, or whether a parser would have been a whole lot less work. Credit for your skillz, but that looks like so much pain.

kevin_thibedeau · on April 3, 2020

These are macros that generate user configurable codegen macros. I couldn't hard code register assignments so everything dynamically generated is prepared with these monstrosities. They also can't have fixed names since some need to be invoked multiple times with different parameters.

FWIW I didn't intend for things to go this far. I just started with some simple macros and it snowballed.