Fatal: A library for fast prototyping of software in C++11 and up | Hacker News Reader

Fatal: A library for fast prototyping of software in C++11 and up

github.com

27 pointsbrooksbp9 comments

This really needs an actual introduction. There doesn't appear to be any documentation at all other than some slides that don't stand on their own at all and a completely baffling demo that has a whole bunch of code to do something, but I don't have the slightest clue as to what other than that it's apparently a db engine. After spending about ten minutes digging through what's available I still have no idea what the library does other than that it involves metaprogramming in some way.

Agreed. It doesn't even have a "Our new shine thing <fatal> uses all kinds of <buzz words> to improve <productivity, testability, hairline> by <some entirely unrealistic amount> because we do <buzz words> and everybody else does <old buzzwords>

FYI, the slides are here: https://github.com/facebook/fatal/blob/master/docs/cppcon201...

With the demo folder, seems straightforward if you know C++. E.g.

Goal ▪ Working prototype for a database that: ▪ Stores arbitrary data structures rather than only tables ▪ Supports different operations depending on the data type used ▪ Uses less than 400 lines of code ▪ Allows one to trivially add or remove data types and operations

And there will eventually be video recordings available: http://cppcon.org/cppcon-video-recording-2014/ (Can't wait!)

And see "Potential Uses" section of slide deck, page 66 or so.

> Extensive documentation with examples can be found inline in the source header files.

I don't see this as a proper way to do docs. At least give a first-time viewer a glimpse of what this might be useful for. I'm completely in the dark, myself.

Agreed. However, it's still viable to go that route if you have a document-generating tool like doxygen that will pull all of this data out and make a (rather hideous, but usable) bunch of html documentation.

This is not an example of that.

Don't worry. They will abandon it in a few weeks because they rewrote a new one that works better.

Check the sides. As for header docs, they do seem extensive: https://github.com/facebook/fatal/blob/master/fatal/type/pre...

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