Re: Macros, hard sell [was Re: Excavators [was: A language idea:Elle]]

[Shriram Krishnamurthi <address@hidden>]

Scott McKay wrote:

> At 4:48 PM -0500 1/7/03, Shriram Krishnamurthi wrote:
> >Reginald Braithwaite-Lee wrote:
> >
> >>  I also recall a lively discussion around "macros" at LL2. Apparantly,
> >>  many of us feel macros make a language more useful, and yet langauges
> >>  with macros are a hard sell.
> >
> >Let's consider two prominent languages with macros.
> 
> Without commenting on anything else here, I need to point out
> that C does not have anything like the "macros" that people were
> talking about at LL2.  C has a weak text substitution facility.

You'd be surprised (maybe) by how many people think @macros@ implies
@C macros@.  I notice you carefully threw in the @LL2@ qualifier.
Maybe the average person at LL2 was a lot more literate, but I
wouldn't necessarily bet the bank on it.

Shriram