> The super advantage of Lisp (including Scheme): Its format for defining data is the same as for writing code, making macros a natural part of the syntax: You can change your source code just like you’d change any other list (or rather tree) data type.
I've heard this repeatedly over the years, but the explanation unfortunately always stops right there. Could you please give an example of why you'd want to change your source code programatically? It's always assumed that the reader implicitly knows why this is a good and important thing. Perhaps a practical example showing
(A) how this would work,
(B) what the benefit is, and
(C) how the added work in reasoning is worth that benefit.
Note: I personally like the parentheses, as they group everything together so simply.
I've heard this repeatedly over the years, but the explanation unfortunately always stops right there. Could you please give an example of why you'd want to change your source code programatically? It's always assumed that the reader implicitly knows why this is a good and important thing. Perhaps a practical example showing
(A) how this would work,
(B) what the benefit is, and
(C) how the added work in reasoning is worth that benefit.
Note: I personally like the parentheses, as they group everything together so simply.