Define macro alias?

[G-Brain]

I just switched my terminal to UTF-8 and got UTF-8 working in emacs and slime with SBCL. Now I want to write some funny lisp. I want λ to be interpreted as lambda, like an alias or something. I already figured out how to "alias" functions:

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(setf (symbol-function 'add) #'+)

or

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(setf (symbol-function 'add) (symbol-function '+))

I know that just redefines the function under a new name, but that's fine by me.

Now, I'd like to do the same thing for macros. Any ideas?

[qbg]

Why not something like

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(defmacro <name> ((&body lambda-list) &body body)
  `(lambda ,lambda-list ,@body))


[Geoff Wozniak]

It sounds like you want to be able to write something like

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(<-> 45 my-list)

where "<->" is some funky character, instead of

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(push 45 my-list)

Is that correct? If so, you can just define another macro or transfer the macro function.

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;; Wrapper macro which may provide nicer contextual help in something like SLIME
(defmacro <-> (value place) `(push ,value ,place))

;; Transfer the macro function, analogous to your previous work with symbol-function
(setf (macro-function '<->) (macro-function 'push))


In the latter case, you should make sure there is no symbol-function defined for the symbol. You can't have a symbol name both a symbol and a function.

[G-Brain]

Perfect! Thank you Geoff.

I actually tried that last method, but I suppose I already setf'd that funky character to a function before, so I couldn't setf it to a macro.

[nuntius]

If you just want a nice display, emacs provides a few solutions. e.g. http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/PrettyLambda