A macro in computer science is an abstraction, whereby a certain textual pattern is replaced according to a defined set of rules. The interpreter or compiler automatically replaces the pattern when it is encountered. In compiled languages, macro-expansion always happens at compile-time. The tool which performs the expansion is sometimes called a macro-expander. The term macro is used in many similar contexts which derived from the concept of macro-expansion, including keyboard macros and macro languages. In most situations, the use of the word macro implies expanding a small command or action into a larger set of instructions. Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Computer Science Open Directory Project: Computer Science Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies Belief that title science in computer science is inappropriate Categories: Computer science | Academic disciplines ... An abstraction is an idea, concept, or word which defines the phenomena which make up the concrete events or things which the abstraction refers to, the referents. ... A pattern is a form, template, or model (or, more abstractly, a set of rules) which can be used to make or to generate things or parts of a thing, especially if the things that are generated have enough in common for the underlying pattern to be inferred or discerned... Interpreter can mean one of the following: In communication, an interpreter is a person whose role is to facilitate dialogue between two parties that do not use the same language. ... A diagram of the operation of an ideal compiler. ...

The purpose of macros is to either automate frequently-used sequences or enable a more powerful abstraction — but these are often the same thing. Automation (ancient Greek: = self dictated) or Industrial Automation is the use of computers to control industrial machinery and processes, replacing human operators. ... This is a page about mathematics. ...

Languages such as C and assembly language have simple macro systems, implemented as preprocessors to the compiler or assembler. C preprocessor macros work by simple textual search-and-replace. More elaborate macros are available to C programmers by using an additional text-processing language such as M4. The C Programming Language, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, the original edition that served for many years as an informal specification of the language The C programming language is a standardized programming language developed in the early 1970s by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie for use on the UNIX operating... Assembly language or simply assembly is a human-readable notation for the machine language that a specific computer architecture uses. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...

Lisp languages such as Common Lisp and Scheme have more elaborate macro systems: In Lisp, macros behave like functions transforming program text, with the full language available to express such transformations. Lisp is a functional programming language family with a long history. ... Common Lisp, commonly abbreviated CL (not to be confused with Combinatory logic which is also abbreviated CL), is a dialect of Lisp, standardised by ANSI X3. ... Scheme is a functional programming language and a dialect of Lisp. ...

Whereas a C macro may define a simple replacement of one piece of syntax with another, a Lisp macro can control the evaluation of sections of code, creating new syntactic constructs indistinguishable from those built into the language. For instance, in a Lisp dialect that has cond but lacks if, it is possible to define the latter in terms of the former using macros. Entire major extensions to Lisp syntax, such as the CLOS system for object-oriented programming, have been defined as macros. The Common Lisp Object System, a powerful system for object_oriented programming which forms part of Common Lisp. ... In computer science, object-oriented programming, OOP for short, is a computer programming paradigm. ...

Keyboard macros

Keyboard macros and editor macros are used interactively on a graphical user interface and text editor, respectively. These allow short sequences of keystrokes to substitute long sequences of commands, and can provide a simple form of automation for repetitive tasks. An example of graphical user interface in Microsoft Windows XP An example of graphical user interface in Apples Mac OS X A graphical user interface (or GUI, pronounced gooey) is a method of interacting with a computer through a metaphor of direct manipulation of graphical images and widgets in... Notepad is the standard text editor for Microsoft Windows A text editor is a piece of computer software for editing plain text. ... Automation (ancient Greek: = self dictated) or Industrial Automation is the use of computers to control industrial machinery and processes, replacing human operators. ... Repetition is the occurrence of an event which has occurred before. ...

The programmers' text editor Emacs (short for "editing macros") follows this idea to a conclusion. In effect, most of the editor is made of macros. Emacs was originally devised as a set of macros in the editing language TECO; it was later ported to dialects of Lisp. The GNU Emacs interface, running in a graphical environment. ... TECO may be: The acronym for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, the Republic of China (Taiwan) representations in countries that has no diplomatic relations. ...

Macro languages

A macro language is a programming language in which all or most computation is done by expanding macros. Macro languages are not widely used for general-purpose programming, but are common in text processing applications. Examples include M4 (mentioned previously), Visual Basic Scripting (Microsoft), Internet Macros (iOpus), and TeX. The TeX mascot, by Duane Bibby TEX, written as TeX in plain text, is a typesetting system created by Donald Knuth. ...

Microsoft Word and macro viruses

Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), is a programming language in Microsoft Office. This is not, by the above definition, a macro language at all. However, its function has evolved from and replaced the idea of macros in end-user applications, so it is popularly and mistakenly called a macro language. For the emulator frequently nicknamed VBA, see VisualBoyAdvance. ... Microsoft Office is a suite of productivity programs created by Microsoft and developed for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh operating systems. ...

VBA has access to many operating system functions and supports automatic execution of macros when a document is opened. This makes it possible to write computer viruses in this language. In the mid-to-late 1990s, macro viruses became one of the most common types of computer virus. Other projects with macro languages, such as OpenOffice.org, have deliberately excluded certain functionality (e.g., automatic execution) from their macro language so as to avoid susceptibility to this program. However, such features are popular in a corporate setting. In computer security technology, a virus is a self-replicating program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents (for a complete definition: see below). ... // Events and trends The 1990s are generally classified as having moved slightly away from the more conservative 1980s, but keeping the same mind-set. ... In computer technology, a macro virus is a virus that exploits applications which allow their associated documents to contain executable code, known as a macro. ... OpenOffice. ...