[pypy-dev] Questions about the C core

Samuele Pedroni pedronis at bluewin.ch
Sun Jan 12 14:25:52 CET 2003


From: "Andrew McGregor" <andrew at indranet.co.nz>

> Someone else suggested a sufficiently extensible parser, if I follow their
> intent, and I agree entirely.  In a sense, a macro system is just one
> possible interface to such an extensible parser.

the problem is that getting that one interface right for user consumption is
darn hard and
citing Guido  about macros in the thread I have referred to (that I hope you
have read):

"I've considered it, and rejected it.  That doesn't mean you shouldn't
bring it up, but I expect it would turn Python into an entirely
different language."

> I also think that if metaclasses can be pythonic, there's a pythonic way to
> do macros too, but if consensus is against that, then let them simply be an
> implementation detail of Minimal Python.

The issue is that using macros as a tool risks to trigger a debate on how to
get them right and while in Lisp adding some form of macros is a no-brainer,
this is not case for Python. So if they do not show to be inavoidable better
leave the idea alone. An extensible parser with only a programmable interface
can do the trick if necessary.

If you want a debate about the pythonicity of macros and possible
implementations of them IMO comp.lang.python is probably a better place.

Honestly I don't hold my position because I dislike macros, I like macros in
Common Lisp, I have thought about adding macros to Python and have partecipated
to some debates about the issue.

regards



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