RE: Lua code generation and optimisation

["Thijs Schreijer" <thijs@...>]

> > I would better use standard Lua syntax with a normal "if", but
> instead
> > use a specially marked condition. Something like :
> > ----
> > function COMPILE_TIME(cond) return cond end
> >
> > if COMPILE_TIME(condition) then
> >   print("something")
> > else
> >   print("something else")
> > end
> > -----
> >
> > The advantage is that it the script will run normally unprocessed, no
> > matter what "condition" is.
> > Now, since Lua language is not very difficult to parse, it should
> then
> > not be a big problem to write a filter that looks for "if (not)?
> > COMPILE_TIME(.*) then .* end" pattern, evaluate the constant
> > condition, and outputs a scripts without those runtime tests.
> >
> 
> Seconded! Such a thing would be very nice for debugging, too, since it
> means you don't have to "recompile" Lua code when testing changes.

Probably me, but I'm not getting this. In what case would you have to
'recompile' and when don't you have to 'recompile'?