It might be worth noting that ret was unnecessary in this case.
(mac ret (var val . body)
`(let ,var ,val ,@body ,var))
(def question (url q a b c d)
(let id (++ question-id*)
(ret new (inst 'question
'id id 'url (video-url url)
'q q 'a a 'b b 'c c 'd d)
(= (questions* id) new))))
could just be
(def question (url q a b c d)
(let id (++ question-id*)
(= (questions* id)
(inst 'question
'id id 'url (video-url url)
'q q 'a a 'b b 'c c 'd d))))
ret would certainly be useful in general, of course.
I agree that 'ret would be more useful in other areas than here. In arc.arc 'best, 'summing, 'sum, 'listtab, 'copy, 'inst, 'w/table, 'memtable, and 'evtil all use this idiom of creating a local variable with 'let and then returning it.
