Macros, clojure vs common lisp

Question

A few of my friends and I are working on a new platform and we want to build it in lisp. The main attraction are macros. We all use Common Lisp but I want to explore the option

Answer 1

May be your friend is referring Clojure macro system is "weaker" in the sense that Clojure as of now doesn't support "reader macros", but that doesn't mean that the macro system is weaker as reader macros can make things really really complex as far as my understanding of using them is concerned.

I also wont suggest that you should take macros as the main attraction. They are powerful but when you are attracted to some specific technique you start applying it everywhere even though there is a much simpler technique available (in macro case the simpler technique is functions).

Another important thing you should consider is the "platform" that you want to target as Clojure supports JVM and along with all the tools that are there for JVM platfom.