merits of Lisp vs Python

[Paddy]

Mark Tarver wrote:

> How do you compare Python to Lisp?  What specific advantages do you
> think that one has over the other?
>
> Note I'm not a Python person and I have no axes to grind here.  This is
> just a question for my general education.
>
> Mark
I've never programmed in Lisp but I have programmed in Cadence Skill a
Lisp inspired language with infix notation as an option. I found Skill
to be a very powerful language. At the time I new only AWK, C, Pascal,
Forth,  Postcript, Assembler and Basic. Skill was superior and I came
to love it.
But that was a decade ago. Now, I'd rather a company integrate Python
into their product as I find Python to be less 'arcane' than Skill;
with more accessible power, and a great community.
.
Analogy time!
You need Pure Maths, but more mathematicians will be working applying
maths to real-world problems. You need research physicists, but more
physicists will be applying physics in the real world. It seems to me
that Lisp and its basis in maths makes people research and develop a
lot of new techniques in Lisp, but when it comes to applying those
techniques in the real world - switch to Python!

Lisp has a role to play, but maybe a language tuned to research and
with its user base would naturally find it hard to compete in the roles
in which dynamic languages such as Python are strongest.

- Paddy.