From: Thomas Lindgren
Subject: Origin of macros?
Date: 
Message-ID: <m3oeq61044.fsf@localhost.localdomain>
Looking through the Lisp 1.5 Programmer's Manual (2ed, 15th printing),
I notice that there is no mention of macros. So: anyone know the
history of macros? Where, when, how, who?

Best,
                                Thomas
-- 
Thomas Lindgren
"It's becoming popular? It must be in decline." -- Isaiah Berlin
 
From: Pascal Costanza
Subject: Re: Origin of macros?
Date: 
Message-ID: <c4shm2$bla$1@newsreader2.netcologne.de>
Thomas Lindgren wrote:

> Looking through the Lisp 1.5 Programmer's Manual (2ed, 15th printing),
> I notice that there is no mention of macros. So: anyone know the
> history of macros? Where, when, how, who?

Two nice papers cover this, IIRC: [1]

- http://www.nhplace.com/kent/Papers/Special-Forms.html
- http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/bawden99quasiquotation.html


Pascal

[1] I haven't read the papers in a while, so I am not 100% sure.

-- 
1st European Lisp and Scheme Workshop
June 13 - Oslo, Norway - co-located with ECOOP 2004
http://www.cs.uni-bonn.de/~costanza/lisp-ecoop/
From: Jeff Dalton
Subject: Re: Origin of macros?
Date: 
Message-ID: <fx44qrxn44c.fsf@todday.inf.ed.ac.uk>
Pascal Costanza <········@web.de> writes:

> Thomas Lindgren wrote:
> 
> > Looking through the Lisp 1.5 Programmer's Manual (2ed, 15th printing),
> > I notice that there is no mention of macros. So: anyone know the
> > history of macros? Where, when, how, who?
> 
> Two nice papers cover this, IIRC: [1]
> 
> - http://www.nhplace.com/kent/Papers/Special-Forms.html
> - http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/bawden99quasiquotation.html

I don't know about the 2nd of those, but Kent's paper doesn't
go back far enough.

My memory (from sources I haven't seen in years and don't
have handy) is that macros go back to almost all the way
to Lisp 1.5.  I'm pretty sure they were in Q-32 Lisp.  One
early use of them was as "functions" of arbitrary numbers
of arguments.

I've just looked at the The Gabriel - Steele "Evolution of Lisp"
paper, and it agrees with this and provides some detail.
The idea goes back to an MIT AI Memo by Timothy P. Hart.

See http://www.dreamsongs.com/NewFiles/HOPL2-Uncut.pdf

-- jd
From: Wolfhard Buß
Subject: Re: Origin of macros?
Date: 
Message-ID: <m3smfhigfq.fsf@buss-14250.user.cis.dfn.de>
* Thomas Lindgren writes:

> Looking through the Lisp 1.5 Programmer's Manual (2ed, 15th printing),
> I notice that there is no mention of macros.

Lisp Macros were invented by Timothy P. Hart in 1963, see [Hart: Macro
Definitions for LISP. MIT AI Memo No. 57, 22. October 1963].

The LISP 1.5 Programmer's Manual is of 17. August 1962...


-- 
"Hurry if you still want to see something. Everything is vanishing."
                                       --  Paul C�zanne (1839-1906)
From: Thomas Lindgren
Subject: Re: Origin of macros?
Date: 
Message-ID: <m3d66l9ff3.fsf@localhost.localdomain>
Thomas Lindgren <···········@*****.***> writes:

> Looking through the Lisp 1.5 Programmer's Manual (2ed, 15th printing),
> I notice that there is no mention of macros. So: anyone know the
> history of macros? Where, when, how, who?

Warm thanks for all the replies. Gabriel and Steele's extended (but
still unfinished) HOPL-II paper appears to be the authoritative
historical account of macros. As a bonus, it includes Tim Hart's
seminal macro memo in its entirety.

http://www.dreamsongs.com/NewFiles/HOPL2-Uncut.pdf

Best,
                        Thomas
-- 
Thomas Lindgren
"It's becoming popular? It must be in decline." -- Isaiah Berlin
comp.lang.lisp / 2004 / apr