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Functional Programming in Scheme
Linguistic abstraction
Linguistic abstraction in Lisp

The are several possible approaches to linguistic abstractions in Lisp

  • Incremental approaches

    • Each new construct is defined by a function or a macro

      • Macros are used for new surface syntax, and in cases where evaluation order issues prevent use of functions

    • Fine grained linguistic abstraction

  • Total approaches

    • Writing an interpreter for the new language    or

    • Translating the new language to an existing language (compilation)

    • Coarse grained linguistic abstraction