Lots of people are mis-using eval. They are calling eval more often then would be neccessary, or compiling unsecure code with it. There are too few legitimate applications where eval is really useful, and these mis-uses are very common, so I've grown to dislike eval (eval-string of course, not eval-block).

Here, the speed problem doesn't apply as the eval is ran only a few times on program startup, so there's nothing principially wrong in using eval in your application.

However, I still feel that eval is too powerful for such simple things like creating a set of similar functions which can be done without eval. I just imagine eval as a hairy monster that I don't want to allow in my house even when it's well controlled, does the washing-up and does no harm. Also, I wouldn't like that people think such things are only possible with eval, because that could lead to an over-use of eval again.