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

[Michael Hudson]

Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters <mertz at gnosis.cx> writes:

> Michael Hudson <mwh at python.net> wrote previously:
> |[1] How many people went "significant indentation! ugh!"?
> 
> Oddly many... or at least it seems odd, since I never had that reaction.
> But almost no one held on to that "ugh!" feeling after a couple days of
> using Python.  My feeling is that the "ugh!" over Lisp's parentheses
> just never goes away for most people.

Did for me.  Using a sensible editor[1] helps a lot.

At first I found it helpful to break everything up into loads of tiny
functions to avoid getting lost in the parens, but after a while you
stop seeing them.  Do you count braces in C?  I know there aren't so
many, but it's the same sort of thing.

Cheers,
M.

[1] This means Emacs.

-- 
  I wouldn't trust the Anglo-Saxons for much anything else.  Given
  they way English is spelled, who could trust them on _anything_ that
  had to do with writing things down, anyway?
                                        -- Erik Naggum, comp.lang.lisp