3 ms·

macros can introduce new syntax, functions do not.

• gruseom 17y ago
  So? If you don't understand what a function does, you read it; if you don't understand what a macro does, you read it. This whole "macros make new syntax so they make code unintelligible" thing is an argument made by the ignorant, for the ignorant. The vast majority of Lisp macros don't create new syntax anyway. They integrate seamlessly into the s-expression format. That way they blend in nicely with the rest of a program and it's easy to write other macros on top of them. An experienced Lisp programmer would only introduce new syntax when there is a big win in clarity - big enough to justify breaking with the surrounding structure and certainly big enough to make the above objection pointless. By the way, one of the real problems with Lisp macros is that it can be hard to tell a macro call apart from a function call. (Various techniques have been developed to deal with this, such as indentation and naming conventions.) If macros were so syntactically convoluting this would hardly be an issue.