Subject: Re: Are macros really a neccessity, or a coverup of language deficiencies? From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no> Date: 2000/04/28 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3165894081922447@naggum.no> * Peaker <GNUPeaker@yahoo.com> | I find it a lot more readable, too, don't you? sorry, no. I find the object model extremely constraining, just like infix syntax is simple and compact for severely constrained contexts and circumstances. once you leave the constrained world, you have to _fight_ both of these premature optimizations by going "underneath" their expression and thinking very carefully about what they do because it will be uncommon to leave the constrained world, and this is itself partly because it is painful to leave it. (sort of like Tom Breton and his "optimization" for fewer levels of code transformation still thinks he has to do with macros. competent programmers gain a deep trust in their ability to deal with such abstractions and do not fear localized and contained complexity, except that both the object model and infix syntax _export_ their complexity so you have no choice but to rub against the constraints when using either.) #:Erik