[minhm]

> macros are bolted on

As I understand it, macro is at a metalanguage level above the current code (eg. C macros vs C "normal" codes). In lisp, this metalanguage is in lisp forms, and thus it is parsed by ... the very same lisp parser for the code. Therefore the whole language is available to you at this meta level, and for all the meta levels above this meta level (ie. for macros that build other macros), so it's lisp all the way up.

I am not sure why you see it as "bolted-on".

[Izkata]

I only know Lisp at a really basic introductory level, but knowing a different homoiconic language my understanding was that "macros" aren't even actually a meta-level thing in these - it's just the language being able to manipulate itself. Using it like this just gets called "meta-level" or "macros" to keep a cleaner separation for developers to reason about.

[dragonwriter]

It feels more bolted on than in, say, REBOL, where there aren’t separate macros because functions can selectively take any or all of their arguments unevaluated, as a value but not fully evaluated, or fully evaluated.

(Which isn’t to say the Lisp way is worse; there’s strengths and weaknesses of both.)