Jonathan Scott Duff wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 04, 2000 at 10:52:24PM -0400, Ken Fox wrote:
> > Why would we ever use source filters when we're going to have a
> > beautiful extend-syntax macro system.
>
> Because source filters *are* that macro system. Why would we invent
> yet another language within a language when we can use a language we
> already know--Perl. We just need to make source filters part of the
> language rather than a module (Perl 5 is already almost there).
Look at the hoops Damian had to go through to implement switch -- he
basically had to *parse perl by hand*. That means the macro system
is weaker than it should be. Any macro system that doesn't know how
to tokenize Perl is too weak.
Source filtering is great for things like compression and encryption.
It's a *long* way from being a good macro system.
- Ken
