Why are Lisp macros useful?

The macros are used, because they allow to give the Lisp developer a familiar surface syntax. Plus, and that is a big PLUS, macros are making it possible to use load- and compile-time side-effects. If a Lisp compiler sees (ensure-class ‘foo) the compiler itself has no special knowledge about that function call.

What is macro Lisp?

The Common Lisp macro facility allows the user to define arbitrary functions that convert certain Lisp forms into different forms before evaluating or compiling them. This is done at the expression level, not at the character-string level as in most other languages.

What are the dialects of Lisp?

Lisp has officially standardized dialects: R6RS Scheme, R7RS Scheme, IEEE Scheme, ANSI Common Lisp and ISO ISLISP.

What makes Lisp unique?

Lisp programs are trees of expressions, each of which returns a value. (In some Lisps expressions can return multiple values.) This is in contrast to Fortran and most succeeding languages, which distinguish between expressions and statements.

What are macros in programming?

Macros are used to make a sequence of computing instructions available to the programmer as a single program statement, making the programming task less tedious and less error-prone. (Thus, they are called “macros” because a “big” block of code can be expanded from a “small” sequence of characters.)

What are scheme macros?

A macro is a symbol that has a transformer procedure associated with it. When Scheme encounters a macro-expression — i.e., a form whose head is a macro —, it applies the macro’s transformer to the subforms in the macro-expression, and evaluates the result of the transformation.

What makes Lisp so powerful?

Put simply, Lisp-family languages enable programmers to more quickly write programs that run faster than in other languages. Languages such as Common Lisp, Scheme and Clojure facilitate the creation of powerful and flexible software that is required for complex and rapidly evolving domains like biology.