Re: Python and Lua

["John Belmonte" <jvb@...>]

Russ wrote:

> Where can those of us who would like to learn more about the macros of
> lisp and Dylan look for a simple explaination?

The macro system of Scheme, which is a very clean dialect of Lisp, is
probably a good one to study.  Following is a link to the macro chapter of
"An Introduction to Scheme and its Implementation".  Possibly it isn't very
easy to undestand.  But the nice thing is that it begins by considering a
naive implementation (such as in Lisp) and works from there.  No doubt that
Scheme is a tough vitamin to swallow... but it will make you strong.  (I
still have a long way to go.)

    http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/wilson/schintro/schintro_128.html#SEC180


The macro system in Dylan shares Scheme's important trait of being hygienic,
which means you never have to worry about name clashes.  All I found was a
brief example:

    http://www.gwydiondylan.org/fragments/macros.phtml

To me Dylan is basically a rendering of Scheme using infix ("C") syntax,
adding a great module and OO system, and the ability to do static typing and
match C's performance when necessary.  Unfortunately the most significant
implementation is commercial and windows-only.

-John