A "killer" macro

Hello all,

In short: I'm looking for a "killer" macro - a macro (or a couple of
related ones) that show what Lisp can do and other languages (those
without uniform syntax) can not.

A longer version: Many contemporary languages boast their sharing most
of the functional features of Lisp. Perl, Ruby, Javascript - all have
convenient lists (or arrays), functions as first class objects,
garbage collection, dynamic typing, lexical closures. However, one
thing they lack is uniform syntax, and hence the service of a powerful
built-in macro system such as Common Lisp's "defmacro".
When confronted by fellow programmers with the question "so why is
Lisp so special", I'm looking for that short - not too hard to
understand - snippet of code that will show them *why*. I'm convinced
that such a snippet must involve macros. But all the examples I ran
into so far have been either too simple - and could be easily
implemented another way (for example with Ruby's blocks), or too
complicated.

Any suggestions for such an example ?

Eli

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: A "killer" macro
    ... Many contemporary languages boast their sharing most ... of the functional features of Lisp. ... thing they lack is uniform syntax, and hence the service of a powerful ... understand - snippet of code that will show them *why*. ...
    (comp.lang.lisp)
  • Re: A "killer" macro
    ... Many contemporary languages boast their sharing most ... of the functional features of Lisp. ... thing they lack is uniform syntax, and hence the service of a powerful ... And if you want to improve the efficiency for longer lists, ...
    (comp.lang.lisp)
  • Re: A "killer" macro
    ... Many contemporary languages boast their sharing most ... of the functional features of Lisp. ... thing they lack is uniform syntax, and hence the service of a powerful ... understand - snippet of code that will show them *why*. ...
    (comp.lang.lisp)
  • Re: A "killer" macro
    ... Many contemporary languages boast their sharing most ... of the functional features of Lisp. ... thing they lack is uniform syntax, and hence the service of a powerful ... understand - snippet of code that will show them *why*. ...
    (comp.lang.lisp)
  • Re: A "killer" macro
    ... Many contemporary languages boast their sharing most ... of the functional features of Lisp. ... thing they lack is uniform syntax, and hence the service of a powerful ... Pascal, this can be achieved in Ruby in a simpler way, so it won't ...
    (comp.lang.lisp)