[Texmacs-dev] memoizing macros

[David Allouche]

In texmacs 1.0.2.3 I see this new comment:

;; FIXME: yet another bug in Guile: for some strange reason,
;; import-menu-promise and export-menu-promise are not
;; reevaluated at each run. This *is* the case for top level macros,
;; but apparently not for local macros or macros in a module :^(((

I have not checked the details, but I do not see how this can be a
problem with GUILE. Looks like a a problem with TeXmacs to me.

Macros _should not_ execute code. They should only transform syntax.  So
language can implement a useful optimization called "macro memoization"
which seems to be exactly what the comment complains about.

Well, maybe I am wide off the mark, but I remember seeing macros which
took some action directly instead of just producing syntax for the
interpreter to evaluate when it sees fit. So it might be the problem
there.

There are also known quirks with macros and modules in obsolete releases
of GUILE so maybe the problem should be submitted on guile-users.

-- 
                                                            -- ddaa