Python Macros: Use Cases?

Question

If Python had a macro facility similar to Lisp/Scheme (something like MetaPython), how would you use it?

If you are a Lisp/Scheme programmer, what sorts of things do y

Answer 1

This is a somewhat late answer, but MacroPy is a new project of mine to bring macros to Python. We have a pretty substantial list of demos, all of which are use cases which require macros to implement, for example providing an extremely concise way of declaring classes:

@case
class Point(x, y)

p = Point(1, 2)
print p.x   # 1
print p     # Point(1, 2)

MacroPy has been used to implement features such as:

• Case Classes, easy Algebraic Data Types from Scala
• Pattern Matching from the Functional Programming world
• Tail-call Optimization
• Quasiquotes, a quick way to manipulate fragments of a program
• String Interpolation, a common feature in many languages, and Pyxl.
• Tracing and Smart Asserts
• PINQ to SQLAlchemy, a clone of LINQ to SQL from C#
• Quick Lambdas from Scala and Groovy,
• Parser Combinators, inspired by Scala's.

Check out the linked page to find out more; I think I can confidently say that the use cases we demonstrate far surpass anything anyone's suggested so far on this thread =D