merits of Lisp vs Python

[Paul Rubin]

Bill Atkins <not-a-real-email-address at not-a-real-domain.com> writes:
> > GC also gets rid of programs.  There are programs you can write in C
> > but not in Lisp, like device drivers that poke specific machine
> > addresses.
> 
> I'm sure this would be news to the people who wrote the operating
> system for the Lisp machine.

That stuff is written in a special dialect of Lisp that doesn't have
regular Lisp semantics and doesn't have the usual Lisp functions,
IIRC.  I think maybe you can't even use "cons".  But my Orangenual is
currently in storage so I can't easily check.

Anyway I'm not willing to use "Lisp" to describe every language whose
surface syntax is S-expressions.  That, as JWZ put it in another
context, is like trying to build a bookcase out of mashed potatoes.
Lisp means Common Lisp as defined by the ANSI standard.  Otherwise all
languages are equally powerful as long as they have a way to inline
assembly code.