On the value of metaprogramming

Several weeks ago I wrote about a way to implement Smalltalk-style predicate function-to-SQL translation in Common Lisp, so I was amused to come across Dejavu for Python (via Jonathan Ellis), which implements the same technique by inspecting CPython bytecode.

It's amazing what kind of dumb hoops people will jump through when they don't have a system that permits real metaprogramming.