Popular conceit about learning programming languages

[Alex Martelli]

Pascal Costanza wrote:
   ...
>>>I mean, Python is already more advanced than Java.
>> 
>> Oh, I agree with this, but that's not the point.
> 
> Er, I have thought that's exactly the point. What do you need a
> backstage language for that is less powerful than the frontstage
> language?

The first Lisp interpreter was coded in machine language.  The first Python 
interpreter was coded in C.  Examples could easily be multiplied.  The 
lower-level, faster language is often used as the "backstage" (not a term
I'm familiar with, but I think I'm interpreting your meaning correctly).  I 
think (not sure) that the first Prolog interpreter was coded in Lisp, 
presumably with similar intentions.  So, I'm not quite sure what your 
question is meant as -- rhetorical, perhaps?

> (I guess that Jython is useful to take advantage of the Java
> APIs and its platform independence.)

That's a typical reason to choose Jython rather than CPython, yes -- being 
able to take advantage of existing Java-coded libraries (including the APIs 
of the various Java-based standards), and/or of platforms able to run Java 
bytecode (including various JVMs).


Alex