Although macros are even older than Lisp, Scheme has just become the first block-structured programming language to support a reliable macro system. This macro system is described in the appendix to the Revised4 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme, which appeared in the previous issue of Lisp Pointers. This issue contains three more articles on the subject of macros in Scheme, counting the article you are reading. I wrote this as an introduction to the other two articles, because it is very hard to understand their purpose without some background on macros in Scheme.