Alaric Snell-Pym scripsit:

> In effect, you're not all *that* keen on macros, I guess. I certainly
> agree that it's easy to overuse them; certainly, any problem that can
> be well solved with only higher-order functions and other such tools
> should be, rather than going to macros (which aren't first-class, for
> a start).

+1.  I am not against macros, merely against their injudicious use.

> But I'm interested in PL research; I'd quite like to write entire new
> languages as Scheme macros whose expanders are basically a "compiler
> into Scheme", so that I can embed them in Scheme code and intermingle
> them, thereby using whatever language is best for the problem at hand.

Whereas I'd much rather write an interpreter in Scheme.

> What does this mean for us, at an impasse arguing about what the
> correct level of power (and, thus, burden of responsibility) to give
> the programmer?
> 
> Give them options!

"An admirable outcome, were this world one Fastness of the Handdara
[Zen/Taoist monastery, more or less], but alas, we must walk
forward troubling the new snow, proving and disproving, asking and
answering." --Le Guin, _The Left Hand of Darkness_

Or in this case, standardizing.  Which means preferring some things
over others.

-- 
John Cowan                                   [email protected]
        "You need a change: try Canada"  "You need a change: try China"
                --fortune cookies opened by a couple that I know

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