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Macros are defined in the same style as functions, the only difference is the name of the special form used to define them.
A macro object is a list whose car is the symbol macro
, its
cdr is the function which creates the expansion of the macro when
applied to the macro calls unevaluated arguments.
Defines the macro stored in the function cell of the symbol name. lambda-list is the lambda-list specifying the arguments to the macro (see Lambda Expressions) and body-forms are the forms evaluated when the macro is expanded. The first of body-forms may be a documentation string describing the macro’s use.
Here is a simple macro definition, it is the definition of the
when
macro shown in the previous section.
(defmacro when (condition #!rest body) "Evaluates condition, if it's true evaluates the body forms." (list 'cond (list* condition body)))
When a form of the type (when c b …)
is
evaluated the macro definition of when
expands to the form
(cond (c (progn b …)))
which is then evaluated
to perform the when
-construct.
When you define a macro ensure that the forms which produce the expansion have no side effects; otherwise undefined effects will occur when programs using the macro are compiled.