% Alternative Preprocessors for C and Other Languages

General Preprocessors

• cpp, the C preprocessor (C99)
• metapp — Supports Perl code insertion
• perlpp
• gpp — General Purpose Preprocessor
• Cog — Enables Python code insertion.
• m4
• Could tex be used as a general-purpose macro language over text files? Initial research suggests no — tex doesn't care to output text. Hrrm...

Preprocessors for Literate Programming

• WEB, CWEB and its descendants
  • “Enhanced CWEB” apparently has a “preprepreprocessor (scroll down)”. More information not found.

Semantic Patching and Program Transformation

• patch
• Coccinelle — for C only.
• S-expressions: search for macroexpand-all

Miscellaneous Code Modification Tools

• sed

Ideas

• <?perl ... ?> — Perl code injection.
• <?scheme ... ?> — Scheme code injection.
• Way to run S-expressions through Lisp macro processing without executing macros in separate file.

See also Language Research.