Fair enough; I suppose I was oversimplifying. I think the broader point I was trying to make (in addition to the specific downsides I mentioned) still holds tho

Fair enough; I suppose I was oversimplifying. I think the broader point I was trying to make (in addition to the specific downsides I mentioned) still holds though. The Template Haskell paper has some interesting things to say on the nature of C++ templates: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/meta-haskell.pdf https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/...