Re: Can't compile

[Robert Thorpe]

On Feb 28, 3:16 am, Kevin Rodgers <kevin.d.rodg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Robert Thorpe wrote:
<snip>
> > I don't know anything about this code, but what is shown here is a
> > rather common lisp error.
>
> > The function nero-follow-numbers is used in a macro.  This macro is
> > used in the file/compilation block nero.elc.
> > The bytecompiler works on a per file basis.  It compiles each of the
> > defuns to bytecodes completing it's actions once the file is
> > finished.  Macros though must be expanded when the code is being read,
> > at this stage the defuns in the file have not yet been finalised.
>
> > This works fine for the normal evalutator because it finalises and
> > installs a function at the end of the defun form.
>
> > This is why "eval-and-compile" is needed.
>
> A cleaner design would be for the macro to return a form that contains a
> call to the function, rather calling the function during macro expansion
> to generate the returned form.

Yes, but that depends on what the function does, if it does a
significant amount of computation then running it only at
macroexpansion time will make the program faster.