Lambda the Ultimate

Am I the only one bothered by seeing things about "code generation" with no contextual indication of what is about, and then finding out it has absolutely nothing to do with compiler implementation?

Yes, both kinds of "code generation" generate code, but they are substantially different areas. This hijacking of concepts has always annoyed me greatly.

Well, I don't find it problematic in this case. There's usually enough context to clue you in.

Well, it does confuse simpleminded automated searches. It would have been nice if they had used the term "source generation" or "source code generation" or something along those lines. As Wouter implied, using "code generation" to mean "source code generation" hijacks the term that's been used for decades specifically to mean machine-level (or assembly) code generation, in the context of compilers. But it also shows a lack of perspective, in that it appears somewhat uninformed with respect to the related concepts of Lisp-style macros, scheme-style syntax rules, C++ templates, and multi-staged programming.

Despite all that, I do think it's a fairly well-done site, and I don't know of any sites that do as well for any of those related concepts.

Here is a link that I probably first found via the old LtU, to Tim Sheard's Taxonomy of meta-programming systems. Maybe Jack could add a link to it somewhere on CodeGeneration.Net.

By the time I wrote the book and created the site the term 'code generation' was already in use for source code generation and the back end of a compiler. I also went to some pains to differentiate the two terms in the introduction to the book to make sure that people didn't buy the book looking for a compiler reference.

I've gone to lengths to get people to talk about LISP macro generation for the site. I would love to be able to put that information up to provide more context. I look at the site as a portal that can emphasizes code generation, or meta-programming, and from there branches out to cover software development topics in general.

I'll put the link up to the taxonomy article. Thanks for that.

I also invite you to talk about LISP macros if you have experience with that. We could do it as a simple ten question interview with some examples.

As for the search engine pollution. It's regrettable, but in my defense 'codegeneration.com' and 'codegeneration.org' were already taken with application code generation products. At least my site is providing an unbiased informational service on the topic. Plus you can refine your search to include 'compiler' or 'compiler construction'.

Indeed your site doesn't seem to talk much about Scheme/Lisp macros
nor MetaProgramming. Perhaps the following links might help:

http://people.csail.mit.edu/people/jhbrown/scheme/
http://home.comcast.net/~prunesquallor/macro.txt
http://pobox.com/~oleg/ftp/Scheme/macros.html

http://library.readscheme.org/page3.html

You might also be interested in IFIP TC-2 working group on
Program Generation (WG 2.11)
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~taha/wg2.11/