Whitespace as syntax (was Re: Python Rocks!)

[Paul Prescod]

Thomas Hamelryck wrote:
> 
> Python is certainly a very powerfull language with many virtues, but I
> also think that its popularity at least partly is due to the "butterly
> flapping its wing effect". 

I tried literally dozens of languages before trying Python. When I found
Python the experience was: "ahhh. This is the language I've been looking
for." Almost every programmer I introduce Python to has the same
experience once they get over the whitespace eating nanovirus phobia.
There are no butterflies here. There is just good design.

> This is true for almost any language for that
> matter (take e.g. C++ and objective C). 

C++ had many advantages over objective C including a type system that
more directly extended C's and the backing of AT&T.

> You mention Squeak. If Squeak
> continues to mature I think it will be a formidable competitor for python.

Not a chance. Smalltalk is doomed for the same reason Lisp is doomed.
Smalltalk programmers think that their way of doing things is so much
better than everybody else's that the whole world should reorganize
themselves around the language. Tim Berners-Lee was once late for a
keynote speech because he was arguing with Alan Kay about how the web
"should" work. In contrast: Guido says, "this is the Web, this is
Python. Let's make them work together"

> At the moment, it lacks the huge amount of modules that are available for
> python (which is one the most attractive features of the language).

So we have a thirty year old language (Smalltalk) with a poor set of
libraries and you want to attribute that to chaos theory? Give me a
break. The smalltalk community squandered a 15 year "head start" on
Python. The Lisp community's head start was even larger. They must take
responsibility for that.

Languages (or operating systems, or word processors) achieve popularity
or obscurity for *reasons*. Not all reasons are technical, but there are
always reasons.

-- 
 Paul Prescod  - ISOGEN Consulting Engineer speaking for himself
"If I say something, yet it does not fill you with the immediate
burning desire to voluntarily show it to everyone you know, well then,
it's probably not all that important."
    - http://www.bespoke.org/viridian/