merits of Lisp vs Python

[bearophileHUGS at lycos.com]

JShrager at gmail.com:
> Sorry, I missed something here. Why do you need a release to have these
> sorts of things? Can't you just expand the language via macros to
> create whatever facility of this sort you need... Oh, sorry. You CAN'T
> expand the language.... Too bad. I guess waiting for Guido to figure
> out what Fits Your Mind is part of The Python Way.

There are few programmers that are very intelligent and know how very
well how to design languages, so they can invent such things. They are
able to manage and appreciate the more freedom Lisp gives them. But
*most* other programmers aren't intelligent enough for that, or they
don't know enough language design to produce something working or
something nice. So maybe Lisp is for the more intelligent people, or
for really difficult programs (or for dynamic and flexible programs
that have to run quite faster than Python+Psyco code), where having a
bit simpler language isn't an advantage. All the other people use
Python that contains things already well designed for them, such
language constructs are the same for everybody, they are standards of
the language, like generators, so reading each other code is simpler
and faster too.

Bye,
bearophile