What is a macro in Rails?

Question

I was reading the Rails docs, and I have encountered the term macros. I can't find the definition of the term (in the context of Rails). Can someone point me to a place where the term is defined?

I am familiar with the term in a different context as a software for "recording" actions (mouse, keyboard actions in OS, for instance). Is there any connection between the different uses of the term?

Answer 1

In this context, a macro is a piece of code that generates some other code. For example:

attr_accessor :foo

generates this:

def foo
  @foo
end

def foo=(val)
  @foo = val
end

Is there any connection between the different uses of the term?

Kind of. You could say that author of attr_accessor "recorded" what it should expand to.

Answer 2

In Ruby a macro is like a method, just some code, that instead of returning a Ruby datatype returns more Ruby code! This code will get executed along with all the other code you have written when you run your program.