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

[Terry Reedy]

"Pascal Costanza" <costanza at web.de> wrote in message
news:arrh93$hkm$1 at newsreader2.netcologne.de...
> The most useful terminology I have seen so far is as follows.
>
> * weakly typed vs. strongly typed: all languages define types to a
> certain degree, however some languages allow you to break the type
> system. Weakly typed languages do so, whereas strongly typed
languages
> do not.
>
> * statically typed vs. dynamically typed: some languages enforce
their
> type system at compile time and some do so at run time. (compile
time =
> statically typed, run time = dynamically typed)

There is also name typing (C, for instance) vs. object typing (Python,
for instance).  I think this roughly corresponds to static vs dynamic,
but I don't know enough to say in general.  But I do think that
framing the difference between C and Python this way is at least as
important to understanding as static vs. dynamic.

Terry J. Reedy