3 ms·

I don't know about that, for example contracts usually define their terms as they go along. "Hereinafter referred to as...". That's basically a #define macro.

• renewiltord 4y ago
  Isn't that more akin to a constant? Because #define macros are quite powerful, they can also express constants.
  • ben_w 4y ago
    Not sure (not a lawyer), but at the very least the "Hereinafter referred to as…" statement can point to the entire agreement containing that statement: https://s3.studylib.net/store/data/008711807_1-e257ae31713cf1a2e666ecb9e67c0102.png https://s3.studylib.net/store/data/008711807_1-e257ae31713cf... The advantage of natural languages is self-referential infinite recursion is basically fine. The downside is, no compile-time checks for logical inconsistencies.
    • renewiltord 4y ago
      Right, in theory, but in practice they don't really use that functionality, right? I think the reason they don't is that they have macro hygiene issues with the language because while natural language has supreme flexibility, it does not have easy to use scoping constructs and so things inside the macro will leak to outside the macro.