Why aren't we all speaking LISP now?

[Fredrik Lundh]

Grant Edwards wrote:
> Why do people think Python is so Lisp-like?

I think the the correct question is "why do Lisp people
think Python is so Lisp-like"

>   1. Python doesn't have tail-recursion (AFAIK).

isn't required, and no implementation supports it.  but it's
not forbidden either, as far as I can tell.

>   2. In Python the representations of program and data are
>      completely different.

(well, they're both sequences of bytes ;-)

>   3. Python's "lambda" is crippled.
>
>   4. Lisp's object model was slapped on as an afterthought.

> I think Python feels a lot more like either "dynamically typed
> Modula-3", or "non-message-passing Smalltalk" than any sort of
> Lisp.

what exactly is the difference between Python's call model
and Smalltalk's message passing?  consider something like:

    spam.egg(bacon)

couldn't this be seen as sending the message "egg" to the
object "spam"?

Cheers /F