		Search-engine friendly clone of the ACL2 documentation.

Defmacro

Define a macro

Example Defmacros:
(defmacro xor (x y)
  (list 'if x (list 'not y) y))

(defmacro git (sym key)
  (list 'getprop sym key nil
        '(quote current-acl2-world)
        '(w state)))

(defmacro one-of (x &rest rst)
  (declare (xargs :guard (symbol-listp rst)))
  (cond ((null rst) nil)
        (t (list 'or
                 (list 'eq x (list 'quote (car rst)))
                 (list* 'one-of x (cdr rst))))))

Example Expansions:
term                    macroexpansion

(xor a b)              (if a (not b) b)
(xor a (foo b))        (if a (not (foo b)) (foo b))

(git 'car 'lemmas)     (getprop 'car 'lemmas nil
                                'current-acl2-world
                                (w state))

(one-of x a b c)       (or (eq x 'a)
                           (or (eq x 'b)
                               (or (eq x 'c) nil)))

(one-of x 1 2 3)       ill-formed (guard violation)

General Form:
(defmacro name macro-args
  dcl ... dcl ; optionally, also one documentation string; see below
  body)

where name is a new symbolic name (see name), macro-args specifies the formal parameters of the macro, and body is a term whose only free variables are the macro-args. The formal parameters can be specified in a much more general way than is allowed by ACL2 defun events; see macro-args for a description of keyword (&key) and optional (&optional) parameters as well as other so-called ``lambda-list keywords'', &rest and &whole. Each dcl is an optional declaration (see declare) except that the only xargs keyword permitted by defmacro is :guard.

One documentation string may be included between the list of formal parameters and the body, but it is essentially ignored by ACL2. See documentation for a discussion of documentation in ACL2.

There are two restrictions on body aside from it simply being a term in macro-args. Both restrictions relate to ancestral uses of apply$ in body, i.e., uses of apply$ by body or any function that might be called during the evaluation of body. First, only badged primitive functions may be applied. See badge for a way to obtain the complete list of badged primitives. Second, loop$ and lambda$ may not be used anywhere in the ancestry of body. See ignored-attachment and prohibition-of-loop$-and-lambda$ for more discussion. Note: It is permitted for the value of body to mention apply$, loop$, and lambda$.

For compute-intensive applications, see defmac, which can speed up macroexpansion by introducing an auxiliary defun. For a variant of defmacro that automatically quotes arguments by default, but provides a way for calls to evaluate specified arguments, see defmacroq.

Macroexpansion occurs when a form is read in, i.e., before the evaluation or proof of that form is undertaken. To experiment with macroexpansion, see trans. When a form whose car is name arises as the form is read in, the arguments are bound as described in CLTL pp. 60 and 145, the guard is checked, and then the body is evaluated. The result is used in place of the original form.

In ACL2, macros do not have access to the ACL2 state, state. (If state or any user-defined stobj (see stobj) is a macro argument, it is treated as an ordinary variable, bound at macro-expansion time to a piece of syntax.) This is in part a reflection of CLTL, p. 143, ``More generally, an implementation of Common Lisp has great latitude in deciding exactly when to expand macro calls with a program. ... Macros should be written in such a way as to depend as little as possible on the execution environment to produce a correct expansion.'' In ACL2, the product of macroexpansion is independent of the current environment and is determined entirely by the macro body and the functions and constants it references. It is possible, however, to define macros that produce expansions that refer to state or other single-threaded objects (see stobj) or variables not among the macro's arguments. See the git example above. For a related utility that does have access to the ACL2 state, see make-event.

Subtopics

Prohibition-of-loop$-and-lambda$: Certain events do not allow loop$s or lambda$s
Ignored-attachment: Why attachments are sometimes not used
Defmac: Define a macro that expands efficiently.
Defmacro-untouchable: Define an ``untouchable'' macro
Defmacro+: An enhancement of defmacro with XDOC integration.
Defmacroq: Define a macro that quotes arguments not wrapped in :eval