merits of Lisp vs Python

[Alex Mizrahi]

(message (Hello 'Steven)
(you :wrote  :on '(Sat, 09 Dec 2006 20:02:06 +1100))
(

 SD> It is a good thing that when Fred decides to stop contributing to an
 SD> open source project (or leave the company), other people can read his
 SD> code without having to learn his Uber-Special Custom Macro Extended
 SD> Language. Even if Fred's USCMEL ran 35% faster (and thus saved an
 SD> entire four seconds on an average run with typical data!) the five or
 SD> six weeks of reduced programmer productivity when somebody else has to
 SD> maintain his code outweighs that.

have you ever faced this problem?
it's not a problem at all.

and it's possible to write unmaintanable code in any langauge. for example, 
Bram Cohen's BitTorrent (written in Python)
has a constructors with 21 positional parameters

class Rerequester:
    def __init__(self, url, interval, sched, howmany, minpeers,
            connect, externalsched, amount_left, up, down,
            port, ip, myid, infohash, timeout, errorfunc, maxpeers, 
doneflag,
            upratefunc, downratefunc, ever_got_incoming):

and here's how it called:

    rerequest = Rerequester(response['announce'], 
config['rerequest_interval'],
        rawserver.add_task, connecter.how_many_connections,
        config['min_peers'], encoder.start_connection,
        rawserver.add_task, storagewrapper.get_amount_left,
        upmeasure.get_total, downmeasure.get_total, listen_port,
        config['ip'], myid, infohash, config['http_timeout'], errorfunc,
        config['max_initiate'], doneflag, upmeasure.get_rate, 
downmeasure.get_rate,
        encoder.ever_got_incoming)

i think it might be a bit hard to non-autist to remember order of parameters 
in such constructor. (and it's not the only one such place in BitTorrent)
and that guy teaches us how to write maintanable code! 
http://advogato.org/article/258.html

thus, you don't need macros to write unmaintanable code -- functions are 
enough for this. and with macros you can make it more maintanable, actually


)
(With-best-regards '(Alex Mizrahi) :aka 'killer_storm)
"People who lust for the Feel of keys on their fingertips (c) Inity")