Macros that don't work

[Keith Wright]

You are doing great work that I do not understand.

Though I worry that by the time we have worked on it long
enough to know how it should be done, we are too tired to do it,

Still, I am happy to still be living, learning, and understanding more.

I am deterimined to understand how macros should work.

I think I could learn by entering a macro (@REPL) and seeing
(not evaluating) the expanded result.  Is this possible with Guile?

  Your Student,
  -- Keith
---

PS: I don't want to utter a seldom heard discouraging word, but I do
want to be a chearleader for fixing the damned thing.

> From: Andy Wingo <wingo@pobox.com>
> Subject: GNU Guile 3.0.8 released
> Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2022 08:47:48 +0100
> 
> Note however that as with macros, when a definition changes in module A,
> a separately compiled module B that uses that definition doesn't
> automatically get recompiled.  This is a limitation in Guile that we
> would like to fix.

I would call it a high priority bug.  Can it be disabled by default?
If you can't auto-compile what needs to be compiled, then don't
auto-compile at all.

> From: Jean Abou Samra <jean@abou-samra.fr>
> Subject: Re: with-syntax return error in Guile, not in Kawa or Racket
> Date: Fri, 10 May 2024 00:35:32 +0200
> 
> Maybe you have several files and you forgot to clear the bytecode cache?

I can say with confidence that I have never forgotten that, since I
never learned it in the first place.  Is it in the manual?
Do I have to do it by hand?  When?  Is there a compiler option to
do it always?  If so, it should be the default.

> Jean> Keep in mind that Guile doesn't do dependency tracking: if file
> B uses a macro defined in file A and file A changes, B won't be
> recompiled automatically, and will use the expansions from the old
> macros until you clear the cache or use --no-auto-compile or similar.

If you must re-make make, make it right.