'eval is not particularly looked down on, it's just rather inflexible. Given the way arc works, an 'eval that can use the current local scope is impossible - because arc compiles down into scheme, and an 'eval in arc compiles down to an 'eval in scheme, and an 'eval in scheme cannot use the current local scope. In order to get such an eval, you'd need to rewrite arc as an interpreter.
Edit: Unless mzscheme itself has some special 'eval with that functionality. I didn't think of that. I don't think it does, though.
parser.arc (at least, the parser lib I wrote; there are at least two others in anarki) uses coerce to get corresponding atoms from the token in string form. 'eval would probably have worked too. Otherwise, parser.arc just returns the forms it reads in, only transforming bracket syntax and string interpolations.
