Metaprogramming using Scheme

ibm.com

40 points·mahipal··5 comments

Interesting, I guess it's a good sign to see this kind of article on a more mainstream site like developerworks.

The open-brace, close-brace style of parenthesis placement is not very nice, though, and not idiomatic; and "then" and "else" in his examples aren't exactly reserved words. Still, kudos for trying to explain syntax-case macros.

Syntax-rules macros have a beauty worthy of Scheme. Syntax-case macros have a power worthy of Scheme. That the author's examples were not beautiful was not helped by syntax-case itself ;-)

Andy, who hacks a lot on syntax-case macros and an implementation thereof...

It's from 2006, so I'd hardly consider it a good sign ;)

...making it easier to craft boilerplate code

Funny... I thought the goal of metaprogramming was to eliminate boilerplate code. I suspect that's what they really meant here - maybe they phrased it that way to make the intent understandable to Java programmers.

It was worded a bit awkward, but again the goal is not to eliminate the boilerplate code, but to abstract it to a level where you only need to write it once.

I haven't looked at them, yet, but there is also a part 1 and a part 3. Part 3 has a scary title ;-).

The art of metaprogramming, Part 1: Introduction to metaprogramming

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-metaprog1....

The art of metaprogramming, Part 3: Enterprise metaprogramming

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-metaprog3/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com