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

[Erik Max Francis]

Ian Bicking wrote:

> On Sun, 2002-11-10 at 01:20, Sean 'Shaleh' Perry wrote:
>
> > What always bothers me though is the quote syntax.  '(this text) is
> > different
> > from (this text).  I find that when reading code it is very, very
> > easy to
> > miss that silly quote.  Sure you just learn to look for it but it is
> > still
> > what irks me most.
	...
> Logo (the teaching language, famous for its turtles) is very much
> Lisp,
> but with some small changes that makes the syntax much simpler.

It's fair to point out at this point that Logo does have quoting on
words (the Logo equivalent of Lisp words), but with double quotes
instead of single quotes.  (Logo lists don't get quoted in this way,
however.)

Your overall point is valid, though.  Logo is actually a Lisp derivative
that is cleverly disguised.  The turtle graphics portion of the Logo is
the most widely known feature, but actually within the language it is
almost an afterthought; Logo (Greek for _word_) was originally designed
to manipulate English sentences, which is why the list-forming
construct, for instance, is called SENTENCE.

> The other detail is that quoted lists use [], so:
>
>   REPEAT 100 [FORWARD 100 RIGHT 90]
> 
> is actually calling the function REPEAT (not a special form) ...

And, in fact, TO (the procedure which creates new procedures) is the
only special form in Logo.

> Anyway, I think it's a novel solution to the parenthesis problem.

I have seen variants of Lisp -- at least notational variants -- that do
a similar thing by eliminating "unambiguous" parentheses.  In Lisp
proper, I found this really irritating, because it put the onus on me to
do the parsing.  In Logo it makes sense, but in Lisp itself I don't
think it does.

-- 
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