merits of Lisp vs Python

[Paddy]

Paul Rubin wrote:

> "mystilleef" <mystilleef at gmail.com> writes:
> > Slow for users who aren't familiar with Psyco, Pyrex and C extensions,
> > sure.
>
>
> Anyway it's pretty lousy advocacy for a language to say "well if the
> language is too slow, don't use it, use another langauge like C instead".

Python can be used as a glue language. It is not solely a glue
language.
A lot of people find using Python to script libraries written in other
languages
a way to get things done. Ask the scipy guys or the biopython guys.
The Python community actively encourages groups writing useful
libraries
to maintain a Python port, or Python users might wrap libraries
themselves.

You don't always wrap a module in Python for reasons of speed of
execution.
Software testing may well be easier to do in Python than in the
native language of the wrapped library. The library itself may be
better
used in the dynamic environment of Pythons command line; or used
together
with other libraries already wrapped for/accessible from Python.

- Paddy.