I do like the preprocessor and my major pet peeve with C is that the preprocessor has been stagnant for ages. Like, why the hell can't i do something like
#define BASE hey
#define HEADERS foo bar baz
#append HEADERS bad bal bah
#push OSSUFFIX
#ifdef WIN32
#define OSSUFFIX win32
#else
#define OSSUFFIX unknown
#endif
#foreach H HEADERS
#eval include "$(BASE)/$(OSSUFFIX)/$(HEADERS)"
#endfor
#pop OSSUFFIX
People go to great lengths making all sorts of weird structures from x-macros, repeated statements, defines that only exist to be used by other defines, etc all to work around existing preprocessor limitations - and many of them would simply become unnecessary if the preprocessor could do things like variable editing, loops and being able to eval its own commands.
Even though some stuff can be done via language features, it is often necessary and more flexible to work with the source code itself.
One alternative is to just write a C code generator, which lets you mix C and some sensible language, eg. python. Then use that to generate the code which is then sent to gcc.
Not really? They're part of compilation and obey all the type rules & syntax of the language. They're not textual replacements that run in a distinctly different phase like macros are.
