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

[Robin Munn]

Alex Martelli <aleax at aleax.it> wrote:
> Robin Munn wrote:
> 
>> Brad Hards <bhards at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
>>> I'm certainly amazed at the tolerance people have for questions that are
>>> readily answered in a number of on-line tutorials, and in both the Python
>>> books that I have (Learning Python and the Python Cookbook). In the end,
>>> the friendly attitude may be the killer feature.
>> 
>> Out of curiosity, do you think a response like: "That's covered in the
>> Python tutorial -- look at [URL]" will strike a newbie as friendly or
>> not? I ask because that's the kind of answer I will tend to write when
>> I'm in a hurry. Sometimes I will take the time to phrase the answer in
>> my own words, but often I won't want to duplicate the work that someone
>> else has already done in writing that tutorial. So if you were a newbie
>> getting a curt response like that, would you feel it was a brushoff, or
>> would you feel like your question had been answered?
> 
> If the URL was a reasonably short page most of which was about
> answering my question, I'd feel quite happy.
> 
> If the URL was to a large document of which maybe 10%, if that,
> is about answering my question, with all of the rest providing
> generically-interesting information that doesn't however have to
> do with answering my specific question, I'd probably feel I have
> been "given a brushoff".

Thanks; that's something to keep in mind, especially as the Python
tutorial tends to have large pages full of detail. So a better response
would be something like:

"That's covered in the Python tutorial -- see section 5.3.1 of [URL],
and let me know if that doesn't answer your question."

Still saves time for the answerer who doesn't have to duplicate the work
that went into writing the tutorial, but the newbie will feel a lot
happier, I imagine.

-- 
Robin Munn <rmunn at pobox.com>
http://www.rmunn.com/
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