[pro] The Best Examples of "Code is Data"

[Julian Squires]

On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 6:19 PM, Daniel Weinreb <dlw at itasoftware.com> wrote:
[re: Let Over Lamba]
> This is an interesting and original book.  The techniques
> he likes, including "anamorphic macros", have generally
> been frowned upon by the community.

I don't understand why anaphoric macros are so frowned upon.  Like any
powerful tool, it's easy to construct pathological situations where
they make code more difficult to understand.  However, I feel that
when tastefully used, they enhance the expressiveness of the language,
readibility of code, and they can help to reduce the verbosity of CL
of which many outsiders complain.  Of course, the prior two sentences
apply just as well to macros in general as they do to anaphora.

(I remember an interesting paper by Todd Proebsting advocating
anaphoric features for languages, which is evidence that it's not just
those out-of-control Lispers who lust after these features: we just
get what others dream.)

Cheers,

-- 
Julian Squires