> whether we like it or not, each project effectively creates its own dialect of the language (http://ithare.com/cpp-guidelines-made-to-measure-s-one-size-fits

> whether we like it or not, each project effectively creates its own dialect of the language (http://ithare.com/cpp-guidelines-made-to-measure-s-one-size-fits-all/ http://ithare.com/cpp-guidelines-made-to-measure-s-one-size-...) Each project has its own coding guide and idiosyncrasies. That is not restricted to Lisp. Macros allow you to express some rules in a domain-specific language, not in a separate document or tacit knowledge. This is more manageable than ad-hoc approaches. Abusing macros is definitely bad and can lead to ghetto-languages. Lisp is interactive, call "describe" on whatever you don't understand. Under Emacs, if you encounter a form you don't understand, point to it, "C-c C-d d" and you get the documentation; "M-." and you go to the definition; "C-c M-m" and you call macroexpand.