What makes Lisp macros so special?

7 points

neokantian

8 years ago

This question, about Lisp's macros, has been asked over and over again:

-- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/267862/what-makes-lisp-macros-so-special

-- https://www.quora.com/What-is-so-special-about-Lisps-macros

-- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9508108

-- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2839742

-- http://kresimirbojcic.com/2011/08/02/whats-so-special-about-lisp.html

The value of switching to lisp (or a variant of lisp) must come from the availability of macros. By looking at examples of lisp macros, I find their usefulness certainly not obvious nor necessarily compelling. It is examples of how to benefit from using a language's facility, that make programmers switch.

Paul Graham can keep touting Lisp macros for as long as he wants, without obvious examples, programmers will keep dismissing the switch as being not worth the switching cost.

5 comments