Re: when are macros useful? - Naggum cll archive

Subject: Re: when are macros useful?
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net>
Date: Sun, 01 Jul 2001 08:56:38 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3202966596699145@naggum.net>

* Ted Sandler <tedsandler@worldnet.att.net>
> Hi, I've read that lisp macros enable one to do things "undoable" in
> most other languages.  I was wondering what some examples of these
> undoable things are, and how they would be implemented using macros.

  Macros can change the syntax of the language or implement a sub-language,
  both of which are translated into the regular language before compilation
  and/or evaluation.  This is due to the lack of structure to Lisp forms,
  the flexibility in evaluation rules, and the uniformity of representation
  of language elements.

#:Erik
-- 
  Travel is a meat thing.