I've been using some Sonic and NHibernate and NetTiers. What else is out there and how do they compare?
Just curious why neg codesmith? Bad experiences?
JP Alioto
2009-06-15 17:30:28
I didn't neg it, but if he's already using NetTiers then he's probably using CodeSmith... Though to be fair, NetTiers != CodeSmith so it still should be a valid answer...
GalacticCowboy
2009-06-15 20:17:08
+3
A:
Well, maybe it's not very cool, but I've been using fprintf to generate code ever since I learned C.
Mike Dunlavey
2009-06-15 15:57:29
I've used that style of generation before; with Ruby, the built in eRB engine is great for code generation.
The Wicked Flea
2009-06-15 16:01:01
Hey, somebody, thanks for the downvote :-) Nothing is more boring than stuff that everybody agrees with.
Mike Dunlavey
2009-06-15 16:08:49
A:
The GWT compiler is a cross-platform, optimising, Java-to-JavaScript code generator.
Robert Munteanu
2009-06-15 16:06:36
A:
On the unix side of things, autogen is pretty good: http://www.gnu.org/software/autogen/
I often use it to do poor man's templates in C (templating over float/double/long double), but it can do some pretty advanced things too.
David Cournapeau
2009-06-15 16:09:49
A:
How about this (reasonably) definitive list: http://www.codegeneration.net/generators.php
As for comparison, ultimately only you can decide if you want (or need) to adapt to the code they produce, or how much time you want to invest adapting your own style to align with what they produce. For example, some developers here used LLBLGen for a while, but we have since abandoned its use as its output didn't align particularly well with our own coding standards. It wasn't bad code, just different.
Paul Suart
2009-06-15 16:12:19
Seems a slightly drastic reason to abandon LLBLGen. a) You should hardly ever need to look at the generated code anyway and b) why not just modify the templates to make it match what you were after ?
Matt
2009-07-16 08:57:30
A:
I hear a lot about MyGeneration. I have also used ActiveWriter for CastleProject but it is a bit specific, not unlike subSonic though, which is more of an orm. (Activerecord uses NHibernate, but this is a tool to generate your classes. As for generating classes, there is a built in class diagram system in Visual Studio to get you started.
Limesoda
2009-06-15 16:13:25
+1
A:
I've done a couple projects now where we used T4, which works pretty well and is built into Visual Studio.
GalacticCowboy
2009-06-15 16:13:44