A survey of macro processors

Macro processors have recently received a considerable amount of attention. It is the purpose of this discussion to try to evaluate the uses and the limitations of macro processors and to consider the essential features of the design and, to some extent, the implementation of a macro processor with special reference to those macro processors that have already been implemented or proposed. The first problem that arises in a discussion such as this is the problem of notation and terminology. Terminology for macros is even more variable than most terminology in computing. For example “replacement text” in one terminology is equivalent in various other terminologies to “macro definition”, “macro skeleton”, “defining string”, “macro body”, and “code body”. In order to avoid confusion, a fixed terminology and notation will be used throughout this discussion. This terminology, which should be self-explanatory, is the terminology used in the literature describing ML/I [4, 51. (It is not claimed that this terminology is “better” than any other; it is simply that if one is forced to adopt one terminology it is most natural to adopt the same terminology as one has used in previous papers.)

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