Re: [Caml-list] Camlp4, macros an thoughts

[Oleg Trott <oleg_trott@columbia.edu>]

On Monday 09 June 2003 05:55 am, Pierre CHATEL wrote:
> Hello, i'm kinda new to the list, so i hope my newbie questions will
> not disturb everyone :))
>
> So, i was wondering if there were something like Scheme's hygienic
> macros with the Camlp4 preprocessor, or even if it does make sense with
> it.
> More generally, i'm looking for some good point-to-point comparison
> between OCaml and Scheme on the macro side...if u know some good
> ressource on that, please point it to me !
>
> Thanks,

If you want to know the difference between Camlp4 and Scheme macros, add the 
difference between Camlp4 and Lisp macros to the difference between Lisp and 
Scheme macros: C - S = (C - L) + (L - S)   :)

Lisp has much simpler syntax than O'Caml (some say that Lisp has no syntax), 
so any kind of "pre-processing" is easier. Also, when you define a Lisp 
macro, all functions, values, types, etc. that were or will be defined or set 
before you call the macro can be used in the macro definition.

As to Scheme macros, I'm familiar with them very superficially (i.e. from 
reading about them) My understanding is that they are quite a bit less 
powerful than Lisp macros, so they don't let you do "arbitrary" things, but 
the above considerations still apply.

-- 
Oleg Trott <oleg_trott@columbia.edu>


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