Meta-Programming and Macro capabilities of various languages

Meta-programming = the broad idea of “programs that manipulate or generate programs”. It can happen at runtime (reflection) or compile-time (macros). Macros = one specific style of meta-programming, usually tied to transforming syntax at compile time (in a pre-processor or AST-transformer). It takes a piece of code as input and replaces it with another piece of code as output, often based on patterns or parameters. Rule‑based transformation: A macro is specified as a pattern (e.g., a template, an AST pattern, or token pattern) plus a replacement that is generated when that pattern is matched. Expansion, not function call: Macro use is not a runtime call; the macro is expanded before execution, so the final code is the result of replacing the macro invocation with its generated code. Here are some programming languages and their meta-programming and macro capabilities. NB! Take with a grain of salt. The result comes from working with perplexity.ai, and I have not had a chance to persona