Intro To Clojure Macros

"The conventional wisdom surrounding macros is to use them only when necessary because they can be difficult to understand, contain extremely subtle bugs, and limit you in possibly surprising ways if you think of everything as functions. These aren't defects in the lisp macro system itself but instead are traits of macro programming in general. As with any technology, the more powerful the tool, the more ways there are to misuse it. And, as far as programming constructs go, lisp macros are the most powerful tool.

An interesting parallel to learning macros in lisp is that of learning pointers in the C programming language. Most beginning C programmers are able to quickly pick up most of the language. Functions, types, variables, arithmetic expressions: all have parallels in previous intellectual experiences beginners might have had, from elementary school maths to experimenting with simpler programming languages. But most novice C programmers hit a brick wall when they encounter pointers.

Pointers are second nature to experienced C programmers, most of whom consider their complete understanding necessary for the proper use of C. Because pointers are so fundamental, most experienced C programmers would not advise limits on their use for stylistic or learning purposes. Despite this, many C novices feel pointers are an unnecessary complication and avoid their use, resulting in the FORTRAN in any language symptom where valuable language features are neglected. The disease is ignorance of the language's features, not poor programming style."