[plt-scheme] Hygienic Macros

Paulo,

Here's another one (probably Eli's examples are better, but I've been
bitten by this one in practice):

Suppose you define a macro do-range:

(define-syntax do-range
  (syntax-rules ()
    ((do-range (i llow hhigh) body ...)
     (let ((low llow)
           (high hhigh))
       (let loop ((i low))
         (if (< i high)
             (begin body ...
                    (loop (add1 i)))
             'done))))))

And then try to use it in

(define (vector-n-smallest vector n <)
   (let* ((store (vector-copy vector 0 (+ n 1))))
      (insert-sort! store <)
      (do-range (i (+ n 1) (vector-length vector))
         (vector-set! store n (vector-ref vector i))
         (insert-sort! store <))
      (vector-copy store 0 n)))

Without hygiene, the '< in the do-range macro will refer to the '<
that is passed into vector-n-smallest.  There's no way to avoid this
without introducing hygiene (i.e. it's not a bug that can be fixed by
simply using (gensym)).  And, it bit me in real life :).

Will

On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 7:07 AM, Paulo J. Matos <pocmatos at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> What would be a good simple example of an hygienic macro that would
> not work as expected if the macro were not hygienic?
> I would like an example that would be simple to understand to
> programming language students that are non-schemers. All the ones I
> have found from papers don't seem 'simple' enough.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> --
> Paulo Jorge Matos - pocmatos at gmail.com
> Webpage: http://www.personal.soton.ac.uk/pocm
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