Why is Python popular, while Lisp and Scheme aren't?

[Pascal Costanza]

maney at pobox.com wrote:
> Kenny Tilton <ktilton at nyc.rr.com> wrote:
> 
>>I am close! I have asked twice here what folks use to do Python, and I 
>>have yet to get one solitary answer. That is /really/ strange. Anyway, 
>>what IDE /do/ you use?
> 
> 
> None.  I use any of several different editors (none of which are emacs
> or vi, for I am agnostic: I dislike both of them).  Well, unless you
> consider the set of xterm, browser, etc. windows I have open as a
> home-grown, constantly changing to suit the shifting requirements, IDE. 
> Aside from abusing "integrated", it's fairly applicable.  :-)

Well, but that's an important point. I can't imagine that you can do 
serious programming in any programming language without a certain set of 
tools. (Of course, you can write throwaway programs with pico + a 
compiler/interpreter, but I am talking about programs that are 
considerably larger in size.)

So in the case of Lisp, a Lisp-aware editor is an important element in 
its set of tools for serious programming. So what? (And again: It 
doesn't have to be emacs or vi!)

What would you think of the following statements?

"One of xxx's lethal failings is that anyone not using Unix (or 
something like Unix) is a second class citizen. The decision to require 
a programmer to use a special operating system is a fatal one."

"One of xxx's lethal failings is that anyone not using xterm (or 
something like xterm) is a second class citizen. The decision to require 
a programmer to use a special shell is a fatal one."

"One of xxx's lethal failings is that anyone not using a debugger (or 
something like a debugger) is a second class citizen. The decision to 
require a programmer to use a special debugger is a fatal one."

"One of xxx's lethal failings is that anyone not using a web browser (or 
something like a web browser) is a second class citizen. The decision to 
require a programmer to use a special browser is a fatal one."

...and so on, and so on... ;-)


Pascal

-- 
Pascal Costanza               University of Bonn
mailto:costanza at web.de        Institute of Computer Science III
http://www.pascalcostanza.de  Römerstr. 164, D-53117 Bonn (Germany)