Choosing a programming language as a competitive tool

[Fernando Rodríguez]

On Thu, 3 May 2001 18:30:48 -0400 (EDT), "Steven D. Majewski"
<sdm7g at Virginia.EDU> wrote:

>



>In my experience, Python is certainly much easier to learn or teach
>than Lisp, but is Lisp harder to learn or master than C++ or Java ? 

It was several orders of magnitude more difficult and boring for me to learn
C++ than Lisp or Python.

>The main problem with becomming a GOOD lisp programmer is similar
>to the problem with becomming a GOOD Python programmer (and from 
>what I hear is also a problem with Java):  the language
>does a lot for you and you're not always aware of the costs. 
>Becomming really good requires learning not just the language, 
>but a model of the runtime and the relative costs of various
>features. 

Exactly :-)


>willing to explain those intricacies to you -- and there's 
>certainly a lot more Java and C++ books than Lisp and Python
>books combined. 

That's not so bad if you compare the quality of the average Lisp or Python
book with the average "teach Yourself C++ in 10 minutes" book.  All the books
I bought about lisp or python were trully insightful, while most of the C++
books (with a few exceptions) make great footstools.





//-----------------------------------------------
//	Fernando Rodriguez Romero
//
//	frr at mindless dot com
//------------------------------------------------