Python becoming less Lisp-like

[Paul Boddie]

Torsten Bronger <bronger at physik.rwth-aachen.de> wrote in message news:<87vf7tiblj.fsf at wilson.rwth-aachen.de>...
> 
> At first, I was very pleased by Python's syntax (and still I am).
> Then, after two weeks, I learned about descriptors and metaclasses
> and such and understood nothing (for the first time in syntax I felt
> totally lost).

Well, I've been using Python for almost ten years, and I've managed to
deliberately ignore descriptors and metaclasses quite successfully. I
get the impression that descriptors in particular are a detail of the
low-level implementation that get a disproportionate level of coverage
because of the "hack value" they can provide (albeit with seemingly
inappropriate application to certain problem areas).

Still, having new- and old-style classes, a separate old-style
exception class hierarchy, and various other "transitional" features
doesn't seem very "Pythonic", does it? ;-)

Paul