> why not simply define functions in the language rather than using the macro system ? Modifying control flow, for one. A classic example is anaphoric if. I

> why not simply define functions in the language rather than using the macro system ? Modifying control flow, for one. A classic example is anaphoric if. If you want to implement that, you can't do it just as a straight forward function. It needs to be a function that modifies syntax, aka a macro.