Clojure macroexpand

Question

Why does

(macroexpand '(.. arm getHand getFinger))

expand to

(. (. arm getHand) getFinger)

while

(macroexpand '(-> arm getHand getFinger))

expands to

(getFinger (clojure.core/-> arm getHand))

In other words, why is the -> not expanding fully in the second example?

Answer 1

macroexpand only expands the form until the symbol in the function position is not a macro. The reason why you notice this in the case of -> is because the -> macro is recursive.

In your case, you want macroexpand-all form clojure.walk