List Processing Capabilities

[Alex Martelli]

"Jim Sabatke" <jsabatke at execpc.com> wrote in message
news:39bcfac4$0$99040$726baab at news.execpc.com...
> Are the list processing capabilities in Python sufficiently Lisp-like to
> perform AI types of processing?

Python's lists are very different from Lisp's, but the list-processing
capabilities are at least equivalent, so that shouldn't be a problem.

However, to get good performance, you might need a language for which
good optimizing compilers exist, and Python currently doesn't have
them.  You might want to look into Scheme (with the stalin compiler),
Common Lisp, Haskell, or ML (Moscow ML, OCaml, or other dialects yet).

I personally suggest Haskell (clean syntax, with Python-like aspects,
e.g. in the use of whitespace; it has some issues, but you should not
meet them, if what you're doing with it is just list-processing).


Alex