4.1 Motivations for the FiST Language

The motivations for creating the FiST language are as follows:

• Much file system code is repetitive. A language is ideally suited to condense such code into short declarations.

• A language may define defaults for many actions, further reducing the need to hand-write code.

• A translator can ensure that generated code is compilable and bug-free.

• Error testing and reporting can be automated.

• Interfacing to the interposed or interposing file system can be automated.

• Interfacing user level and kernel level code can be automated.

The C preprocessor (cpp), in comparison, is not able to conditionally generate sophisticated code. It is more suitable for code expansion from small, static templates.