I got this answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/70318991 about writing a simple macro that records the time at macro expansion time, and then always returns that time.
#lang racket
(begin-for-syntax
(define the-time (current-seconds)))
(define-syntax (macro-expansion-seconds stx)
(datum->syntax stx the-time))
(macro-expansion-seconds)
(macro-expansion-seconds)
(macro-expansion-seconds)
It works great, but now is there an easy way to see an expanded version of (macro-expansion-seconds) without evaluating it? (for debugging more complicated ones)
You can use
(expand #'(macro-expansion-seconds))
in the DrRacket repl.
It will show you the graphical representation of a syntax object - remember to click the little arrow! In Mythical Macros I have written a little syntax objects.
https://soegaard.github.io/mythical-macros/
An alternative is to use the "Macro Stepper". Click the button in upper right corner of DrRacket: the icon is a combination of consists of a # and a play symbol.