Macros That Compose: Systematic Macro Programming

Macros are often regarded as a sort of black magic: highly useful yet abstruse. The present paper aims to make macro programming more like a craft. Using R5RS Scheme macros as an example, we develop and present a general practical methodology of building complex macros systematically, by combining simpler components by functional composition or higher-order operators. Macro programming is complex because the systematic approach does not apply to many macros. We show that macros and other head-first normal-order re-writing systems generally lack functional composition. However, macros written in a continuation-passing style (CPS) always compose. Making CPS macros practical still requires an encoding for macro-continuations. We have found this missing piece, with an insight for anonymous macro-level abstractions. In the specific case of R5RS macros, this paper presents a stronger result: developing R5RS macros by a translation from the corresponding Scheme procedures. We demonstrate the practical use of the technique by elaborating a real-world example.