# Docs

This file is meant to explain how it's working. I'll try to keep it up to date.

## General idea

Meta programming is really useful, in a lots of ways, that's why I'm trying to implement this in C, in the most pleasant way.  
Header-only libraries are also a must imo, so let's try to implement meta programming within a single header! The same header for both compilation and runtime btw.

## Compilation time

`cmeta.h` contains the code to parse structs, lexing is handled by `stb_c_lexer` (for now).  
The `bool process_file(const char *file_path)` function calls `gcc -E <file_path>` (so we handle macros etc), then parses the result. It then generates all `Struct_Info`s in a special place in the header, delimited by two `// AUTO GENERATED CODE  //`.  
If anything has failed, nothing will be generated between the two comments, so cmeta remains intact.  

This struct:
```c
typedef struct {
    int int_field;
} Foo_Struct;
```

Will be converted to this:
```c
// cmeta.h

// AUTO GENERATED CODE  //
static Struct_Info foo_struct_info = {
    .name = "Foo_Struct",
    .fields_count = 1,
    .fields = (Field_Info[1]) {
        { .type = "int", .name = "int_field" },
    },
};
// AUTO GENERATED CODE  //
```

## Runtime

`cmeta.h` now contains both type infos and useful functions to interact with them.