[R] Why is there no macro facility for R?

[Richard O'Keefe]

R is closely modelled on S.  S was always designed to interoperate
well with UNIX tools.
Unix has always had cpp (for c-like languages) and m4
(general-purpose) as outboard macro processors.
Then too, the classic S Blue Book explained how to do "computing on
the language'",
see section 5 of R Language Definition,
so the AST-based macro processor for R is called (drum roll please) R.

On Fri, 23 May 2025 at 14:14, Sorkin, John <jsorkin using som.umaryland.edu> wrote:
>
> Colleagues,
>
> At the risk of being flamed, starting a war, being labeled a heretic . . . etc., I would like to ask the grey-hairs among the R listserve members a simple question. Why did the R core team not develop a macro language for R. I understand that R was designed to be a function-based language, but this does not rule out having macros as a facility that helps in code development.
>
> Thank you,
> John
>
>
> John David Sorkin M.D., Ph.D.
> Professor of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine;
> Associate Director for Biostatistics and Informatics, Baltimore VA Medical Center Geriatrics Research, Education, and Clinical Center;
> PI Biostatistics and Informatics Core, University of Maryland School of Medicine Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center;
> Senior Statistician University of Maryland Center for Vascular Research;
>
> Division of Gerontology and Paliative Care,
> 10 North Greene Street
> GRECC (BT/18/GR)
> Baltimore, MD 21201-1524
> Cell phone 443-418-5382
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide https://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.