What we aim to solve

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2021-07-22 12:00:08

Reflection is often presented as a feature that makes software harder to understand. In this article, I will present ways to approximate some level of static reflection in pure C++, thanks to C++17 and C++20 features, show how that tool can considerably simplify a class of programs and libraries, and more generally enable ontologies to be specified and implemented in code.

Imagine that you are writing a neat algorithm. You’ve worked on it for a few years ; it produces great results and is now ready to be shared to the world. Let’s say that this algorithm is a noise generator.

You’d like that noise generator to easily work in a breadth of environments: in 2D bitmap manipulation programs (Krita, GIMP, …), in audio and multimedia software (PureData, Audacity, ossia score, Mixxx…), 3D voxel editors, etc.

You are proud of your neat results, prepare conference papers, etc… but ! Now is the time to implement your noise algorithm in a set of software in order to have it used widely and become the next industry standard in procedural noise generation.