[naasking]

> Clearly, Rust has a clever approach but I'm questioning whether it is in fact a usable approach. [...] Yes, I do like textual substitution.

These two statements are not consistent. Textual substitution is not usable. The pitfalls with it have been well documented for decades, and yet the same problems persist. Why on earth would you want to perpetuate the list of problems caused by such a facility?

Syntactic macros are absolutely superior to textual substitution. You can take issue with Rust's currently limited support for macros, but to propose textual substitution as a viable and more usable alternative is simply absurd.