Python syntax in Lisp and Scheme

[prunesquallor at comcast.net]

"Andrew Dalke" <adalke at mindspring.com> writes:

> Marco Antoniotti:
>> Come on.  Haskell has a nice type system.  Python is an application of
>> Greespun's Tenth Rule of programming.
>
> Oh?  Where's the "bug-ridden" part?  :)
>
> That assertion also ignores the influence of user studies (yes,
> research into how the syntax of a language affects its readabilty
> and understandability) on Python's development; a topic which
> is for the most part ignored in Lisp.

For some reason people who don't like fully parenthesized polish
notation seem to think that Lisp hackers don't know any better,
haven't seen anything else, and that if we were only shown the light,
we'd switch in an instant.

Allow me to point out that `standard algabraic notation' has been
available in Lisp for 40 years.  McCarthy designed M-expressions for
Lisp in 1962 (if not earlier) and the Lisp 1.5 manual is written using
them.

Vaughn Pratt's CGOL (which I mentioned before) was written in 1977.

Dylan adopted an algabraic syntax sometime in the late 80's 

In every one of these cases, algabraic syntax never quite caught on.

So either the syntax doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of difference
in readability, or readability doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of
difference in utility.