int f() { ... } // any old regular function
const int x = f(); // this is always get evaluated at compile time, (or if it can't, then fail to compile)
int y = f(); // this is evaulated at runtime
That would be the sane way to do compile time functions.
Yeah, I see no problem with that. Non-constant expressions usage of 'const' has always just seemed like a waste of time for me, never found it useful. But I guess a lot of people really liking typing const and "preventing themselves from accidentally mutating a variable" (when has that ever happened?), so as a compromise I guess you can have a new keyword to force constant expressions:
but it's not really a big deal what they keyword is, the main point was that "give me a constant value" should be at the usage site, not at the function definition.