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

[Roy Smith]

David Eppstein <eppstein at ics.uci.edu> wrote:
> The most important similarity I see is that in both languages, 
> values have types but variables are untyped, but that was also true in 
> radically different languages such as Snobol and APL; is that really 
> enough to conclude that Python and Lisp are more like each other than 
> anything else?

The biggest lisp-like thing I see in Python is that from the point of 
view of what a container can hold, data and code (and classes, and 
modules, and types) are the same kind of thing.  A "def" statement is 
really just a definition of a lambda body and an assignment of that to a 
name (variable) all rolled into one.

That being said, I agree with David; only a computer scientist 
interested in language theory would consider Python and Lisp to be 
similar.