Why don't people like lisp?

[larry]

Here's a more realistic example that illustrates exactly the opposite
point. Take the task of finding the sum of the square of a bunch of
numbers.
Do people really think to themselves when they do this task:
Umm first make a variable called sum 
then set that variable sum to zero.
Then get the next number in the list,
square it, 
add it to the old value of sum, 
store the resulting value into sum,
then get the next variable,etc....

No they they think: sum up the square of a bunch of numbers.
This  has an almost direct translation to the lisp style:
(apply '+ (mapcar #'(lambda(x)(* x x)) numlist)).


The reason why the imperative style of programming seems natural is
because that's what people are used to programming in. It isn't
necessarily the way they formulate the problem to themselves. There is
always a translation step.

"Francis Avila" <francisgavila at yahoo.com> wrote in message 
> 
> UD: things
> Gxyz: x is baked at y degrees for z minutes.
> Hx: x is a cake.
> Ix: x is batter.
> 
> For all x, ( (Ix & Gx(350)(45)) > Hx )
> 
> (i.e. "Everything that's a batter and put into a 350 degree oven for 45
> minutes is a cake")
> 
> ...instead of...
> 
> 1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
> 2. Place batter in oven.
> 3. Bake 45 minutes
> 4. Remove cake from oven.
> 
> (i.e. "To make a cake, bake batter in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes")
> 
> ...then lisp will take over the universe.  Never mind that the symbolic
> logic version has more precision.