Re: macros vs. blocks

[John Clements <address@hidden>]

On Monday, November 18, 2002, at 09:34  AM, Paul Graham wrote:

> If anyone has good examples of macros that *can't* be
> expressed with a convenient notation for closures, it would
> be interesting to see them.  My Smalltalk-hacking friend
> Trevor Blackwell has often claimed that macros were
> unnecessary if you had blocks, so as long as we're on
> the subject, please send him (and ll1-discuss) your
> counterexamples.
>

Hmm.  If you consider the three largest categories of macros [*] to be
1) those that affect evaluation order (if),
2) those that introduce literal data (quote), and
3) those that introduce bindings (let),
I don't see how block notation solves any other than category (1).

Admittedly, I live in a small corner of the languages pool (Scheme).

john "ready for re-education" clements

[*] certainly not my thought, originally.