craftinginterpreters

efore, 2 after) This means "insert the code snippet labeled "memory-include-object" here. Include 2 lines of contextual code (which is shown grayed out) before, and 2 after. In the code, the marker looks like: //> Strings memory-include-object #include "object.h" //< Strings memory-include-object The "//>" begins the snippet and the "//<" ends it. The build script reads the "^code" markers and finds the snippet of code in the sources that correspond to it, as well as any desired surrounding lines. But it can also do a lot of other useful things with the snippet markers: * If some lines of code are marked as being part of a chapter, but that chapter doesn't have a "^code" marker to include them, it reports an error. This way I can't accidentally drop code on the floor. * It can generate a separate copy of the entire codebase that only includes the snippets that are in a given chapter (and the preceding ones). In other words it can output "what does all the code look like by the time the reader reaches the end of chapter ___" for every chapter. I output the code for each chapter and then compile that and run all of the tests. This way, I can ensure that by the end of each chapter, the program supports what it's supposed to support by then. I've found countless bugs doing this -- places where I inadvertently put code in a later chapter that is actually needed earlier. However, this build script is not a generic "build a book" system. It's a bespoke program that only supports this one specific book. That helps keep the complexity down and makes it much easier to put little hacks in when I run into weird edge cases my specific book has. I think that's a reasonable trade-off to keep me producing a high-quality book without too much yak shaving. One of the days, I'll write a full blog post going through this in more detail. Of course, none of this is a criticism of Thorsten's system. The simple most important skill in writing a book is figuring how to get those pages done. It doesn't matter if that means waking up at three in the morning and writing on parchment with a red pencil. Whatever works for you, works. [1]: http://www.craftinginterpreters.com/ [2]: https://github.com/munificent/craftinginterpreters/tree/mast...

r templates. I like it. I understand the arguments against rolling your own, but a blog generator is simple enough that the benefits of code reuse are relatively small. Meanwhile, the convenience of being able to jam little hacks specific to your need is very real [5]. When I get time to hack on my blog again, there's a good chance I'll ditch Jekyll and roll my own. [0]: http://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/ [1]: http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/ [2]: https://github.com/munificent/game-programming-patterns/blob... [3]: http://www.craftinginterpreters.com/ [4]: https://github.com/munificent/craftinginterpreters/tree/mast... [5]: https://github.com/munificent/craftinginterpreters/blob/mast...