[ Michael Walter ]:
A couple of examples out of my tired head (solely from a user perspective) :-)
Embedding domain specific language (ex.: state machine): ...
Embedding domain specific language (ex.: markup language): ...
Embedding domain-specific language (ex.: badly-designed database table): ...
..., which might actually prove someone's point that the language designer shouldn't allow people to do such things.
The whole macros issue comes to a tradeoff between power+expressiviness X readability. IMVHO, macros are readability assassins. The power (for any developer) to introduce new syntax is *not* a desirable feature, but something to be avoided. And that alone should be a stronger argument than a hundred use cases. cheers, Senra -- Rodrigo Senra -- MSc Computer Engineer rodsenra(at)gpr.com.br GPr Sistemas Ltda http://www.gpr.com.br/ Personal Blog http://rodsenra.blogspot.com/