The end result is what everyone should agree on, but I prefer to view hygiene as name resolution lexically on the quoted syntax.

Then renaming is just one possible implementation. Pointer graphs are another—but that's just malloc playing the role of gensym. The coolest of all would be something along the lines of DeBruijn indexes: determinism and normal forms ftw!

Gasbichler's implementation of hygiene (in "Fully parameterized, first-class modules with hygienic macros") actually uses De Bruijn indexes.

Thanks! It isn't everyday that one has a thesis cited to them on HN, unfortunately.

The name De Bruijn has two words.

Sorry. I keep on making this mistake for some reason.