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For Java's case the benefits of build time code generation are greatly exaggerated. In many cases, it is a lot faster and easier to generate code at runtime usi

For Java's case the benefits of build time code generation are greatly exaggerated. In many cases, it is a lot faster and easier to generate code at runtime using MethodHandles then build-time code generation. For example, the toString/hashCode/equals methods of record types (that are being added with Java 14). Are all generated at runtime via indy (Invoke Dynamic) instead of generating the bytecode for them at compile-time.

randombytes6869 6y ago
> For example, the toString/hashCode/equals methods of record types (that are being added with Java 14). Are all generated at runtime via indy (Invoke Dynamic) instead of generating the bytecode for them at compile-time. Didn't know that, interesting. I remember when invokeDynamic was added specifically to make VM conversion of dynamic languages easier, I guess JDK maintainers are somewhat guilty of the same laziness as the rest of us. An aside, from reading about JVM targets of Haxe I learned that MethodHandles have truly terrible performance especially on Android. I don't think the potential performance advantages of build time generation are overblown, just that everyone, even language designers, don't want to deal with the added complexity. I could be wrong of course, but because of this I think the C# idea of generators will end up underutilized as well