Re: Explanation of macros; Haskell macros

From: Kenny Tilton (ktilton_at_nyc.rr.com)
Date: 10/07/03 

Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2003 04:13:50 GMT

mike420@ziplip.com wrote:
> I think others dropped the ball while trying to explain macros
> to non-Lispers recently.

...<snip>

> Let's say you do not have the "for" keyword, but you have
> "dolist" for iterating a list and "dotimes" - a simple
> index loop. You want to create "for" just like in Python,

Wow, talk about dropping the ball. Translation: "You should learn Lisp
because it has macros so you can recreate Python in Lisp and not learn
Lisp."

If you want to be an educator, you gotta motivate your students. Your
macro was fine in all regards except that its motivation ("avoid Lisp by
learning advanced Lisp!") is, um, unconvincing.

kenny

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