From: Ken Wesson <kwesson@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Java vs C++
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer
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On Sun, 06 Feb 2011 16:35:32 +0100, Thomas Richter wrote:

> Joshua Cranmer wrote:
>> On 02/05/2011 10:38 PM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>>> In message<4d4d8322$0$41117$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>, Silvio wrote:
>>>
>>>> And Lew is correct: templates and genercis are completely different
>>>> beasts.
>>>
>>> “Completely” as in “having nothing in common”? Or is this some usage
>>> of “completely” that I wasn’t aware of?
>>>
>>> Please explain.
>> 
>> Templates in C++ are basically advanced macros--each invocation of a
>> template type regenerates the class, so a Foo<int> and a Foo<double>
>> are two completely different things.
> 
> That's much more than a macro could do. Templates are a language of its
> own, include syntax checks, etc. Quite unlike macros, they do not
> substitute text patterns. Templates allow meta-programming, i.e. you can
> use the compiler to generate code. And, of course, templates are quite
> complex - very unlike the simple-minded preprocessor.

I take it by "macros" you mean the simple-minded preprocessor macros of C 
and C++. Lisp has things it calls "macros" that are much more 
sophisticated, including syntax checks, etc., and are able to do 
everything C++ templates can do and then some. Common Lisp macros can 
generate templated CLOS classes, for instance.