Python syntax in Lisp and Scheme

[Pascal Costanza]

David Eppstein wrote:
> In article <bm4uf6$6oj$1 at newsreader2.netcologne.de>,
>  Pascal Costanza <costanza at web.de> wrote:
> 
> 
>>It's probably just because the Common Lisp community is still relatively 
>>small at the moment. But this situation has already started to improve a 
>>lot.
> 
> 
> It's only been out, what, twenty years? And another twenty before that 
> for other lisps... How much time do you think you need?

AFAIK, Lisp was very popular in the 70's and 80's, but not so in the 
90's. At the moment, Common Lisp is attracting a new generation of 
programmers.

The basic idea of Lisp (programs = data) was developed in the 50's (see 
http://www.paulgraham.com/rootsoflisp.html ). This idea is fundamentally 
different and much more powerful than the approach taken by almost all 
other languages.

You can't argue that. You can argue whether you want that power or not, 
but Lisp is definitely more powerful than other languages in this 
regard. As Eric Raymond put it, "Lisp is worth learning for the profound 
enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it; that 
experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, 
even if you never actually use Lisp itself a lot."

And, as Paul Graham put it, if you take a language and "add that final 
increment of power, you can no longer claim to have invented a new 
language, but only to have designed a new dialect of Lisp". (see 
http://www.paulgraham.com/diff.html )

These are the essential reasons why it is just a matter of time that 
Lisp will be reinvented and/or rediscovered again and again, and will 
continue to attract new followers. It is a consequential idea once you 
have got it.

"What was once thought can never be unthought." - Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Pascal

-- 
Pascal Costanza               University of Bonn
mailto:costanza at web.de        Institute of Computer Science III
http://www.pascalcostanza.de  Römerstr. 164, D-53117 Bonn (Germany)