Why is Python popular, while Lisp and Scheme aren't?
David Eppstein
eppstein at ics.uci.edu
Fri Nov 8 20:12:25 EST 2002
In article <aqhmib$ei8$2 at solaris.cc.vt.edu>,
Carl Banks <imbosol at vt.edu> wrote:
> Python is more like Lisp than most other languages, though. It's
> similar semantically.
This makes little sense to me. Even the most basic data structures are
different: Lisp is based around singly linked lists while Python uses
vectors (with efficient random access unlike Lisp lists) and
dictionaries. They are also not especially similar in programming
style, although both are capable of being used with a wide variety of
styles. 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?
--
David Eppstein UC Irvine Dept. of Information & Computer Science
eppstein at ics.uci.edu http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/
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