I should have been more detailed and noted that on the "by all means use it" vs. "if you think you need it, think again" continuum, EVAL requires IMO more justification than a macro. The source of my concern over macros is that when designing them, care needs to be taken to clearly communicate their semantics, which is best done IMO by following the established conventions of the language and whatever other macros the user is expected to be familiar with.