RE: need for macros (was Re: Icon)

[Shriram Krishnamurthi <address@hidden>]

Anton van Straaten wrote:

> But assuming a goal of creating a maximally powerful language for "do not
> try at home, use at own risk" scenarios, is there any reason aside from
> performance to avoid first class values?

Yes: static verifiability.  First-classness is generally a direct
enemy of verifiability, especially once you get past very low-level
verification systems such as (traditional) types.  It's the constant
trade-off that us verification people who also want to express systems 
in a reasonable notation have to wrestle with.

Shriram