Lisp Macros, Delayed Evaluation and the Evolution of Smalltalk

Post by lispm » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 11:19 AM UTC

reitzensteinm wrote: post #111

lispm wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and I doubt your claim, that extending a meta-circular toy interpreter with some remotely macro-like feature will help any Lisp beginner to understand Lisp macros. There is already a bunch of good material out there, teaching the use of Lisp macros for both beginners and for medium-level users. Advanced-level users will find a lot of teaching&research in the Scheme literature/... Paul Graham himself has written a goo…

Yeah, there's no point continuing this discussion. Thank you for taking the time to reply in depth to my posts even though we could not find common ground.

Post by reitzensteinm » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 9:27 PM UTC

kazinator wrote: post #113

reitzensteinm wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like I said previously, I don't believe being an expert automatically makes you a good teacher. Based on the responses in this thread, I doubt anyone here is actually good at it. Were I disagreeing technically, it would be a different matter and I'd have long ago hit the books to see where I fucked up. The combined lisp experience on this thread is at least an order of magnitude more than mine, and most of you are pr…

If you tell students that Lisp macros are for delaying evaluation, you're a lousy teacher. Someone in the class will Google you out, send a few instant messages to a few others, and soon nobody will take your class seriously. A good teacher is engaging and glib, and tells the right sorts of little lies at the right times to lead students through the steps of "Wittgenstein ladders"; but he or she can't be flat out wro…