Python's Lisp heritage

[synthespian]

On Sat, 20 Apr 2002 14:12:17 -0300, Andrew Dalke wrote:

> Siegfried Gonzi:
>>What Python --from my pragmatic point of view-- has in common with Lisp
>>is the nice feature that you can put in your return  list different
>>objects,
>>
>>e.g. [[1,2,3],["334.233,"Ein bloeder Oesterreicher",777],array]
> 
> This is also present in Perl and Tcl, and also I believe in Smalltalk,
> Mathematica, and even APL.
> 
>>And it is possible in Python (sorry I know only the idle) to build your
>>functions in the command-line (every Common Lisp environment provides
>>you this).
> 
> I don't know what it's called in Common Lisp, but in Python I think you
> are refering to the interactive mode.  The command-line is what's used
> to start Python from, say, the unix shell.
> 
>>I often have heard that CLOS (Common Lisp Object System) lets you change
>>your class objects on the fly, I do not have any experience with
> that
>>and I am not sure how this relates to Python (my Python object oriented
>>programming experience is zero).
> 
> You can modify Python classes and instances as well, though I don't know
> how similar it is to CLOS.  I do know there are differences between how
> Python does it and how Smalltalk does it.  (Eg, reload() doesn't
updatetheir
> old versions of newly redefined classes.)
> 
>                     Andrew
>                     dalke at dalkescientific.com

<sarcasm> No kidding! You can modify your classes?! Gee, I wonder if you can do *
that * in C++ </sarcasm>
But can you modify them * in runtime * ?! Without halting your
application and, say, recompiling? <smirk>
Answer: NO
Only in LISP can you do that.
That's why NASA is so fond of using LISP on their probes.
And what's this discussion Python X LISP? I thought Peter Norvig's
article already had cleared that up (that Python is a LISP from people
who never understood CONS).

Cheers

H
synthespian at uol.com.br