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4.1 Motivations for the FiST Language
The motivations for creating the FiST language are as follows:
- Much file system code is repetitive. A language is ideally suited to
condense such code into short declarations.
- A language may define defaults for many actions, further reducing the
need to hand-write code.
- A translator can ensure that generated code is compilable and
bug-free.
- Error testing and reporting can be automated.
- Interfacing to the interposed or interposing file system can be
automated.
- Interfacing user level and kernel level code can be automated.
The C preprocessor (cpp), in comparison, is not able to conditionally
generate sophisticated code. It is more suitable for code expansion from
small, static templates.
Erez Zadok
1999-12-07