Is Python the Esperanto of programming languages?

[Martin Christensen]

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>>>>> "Isaac" == Isaac To <kkto at csis.hku.hk> writes:
Isaac> Either [numbers, tense etc.] is implied by the context (when
Isaac> you are talking about the weather today, why you need to keep
Isaac> reminding your listeners that you are in the "present tense"?
Isaac> When you are talking about the things happening in World War
Isaac> II [...]

Deriving information from context has serious weaknesses in situations
where more contexts are involved. These days, for instance, a lot of
talk is going on about the war in the Persian Gulf, and as these
things go, it is being compared to past events. In such a situation,
talking about both 'then' and 'now' in a tenseless language would, as
far as I can see, require that context be switched explicitly,
i.e. 'now I'm talking about the past', and 'now I'm talking about the
present'. So there is definitely a price to pay for the grammatical
simplicity that tenseless languages buy.

Moreover, in constructed languages, operating with even quite complex
tenses can be very easy. I realise that it's not always so (heavens
forbid that I should ever need to learn Italian! :-)), but with
constructed languages, I cannot see how it would be a problem.

Martin

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