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From: cubicle...@mailandnews.com (Software Scavenger)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: LISP - The Challenge of Nested Macros - [#V0.5]
Date: 14 Sep 2002 00:24:45 -0700
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ilias <at_n...@pontos.net> wrote in message news:<altgkt$l2l$1@usenet.otenet.gr>...

> (defmacro abbrev (short long)     ; [1]
>    `(defmacro ,short (&rest args)
>      `(,',long ,@args)))


Your fallacy is in thinking the quote is a form.  But it's an
operator.  The form affected by the first comma of ,',long is ',long
rather than just the ' alone.

The easiest way to read this, and to remember how it works, is to
treat ,', as an idiom or magic formula meaning the same thing as ,
except that it associates with the outer backquote instead of the
inner.