merits of Lisp vs Python

[Ken Tilton]

Paul Rubin wrote:
> Ken Tilton <kentilton at gmail.com> writes:
> 
>>>>The loop language is so complicated and confusing that I never
>>>>bothered trying to learn it.
>>
>>That was my stance for about seven years of intense Lisp. Then the
>>author of Practical Common Lisp did a nice job of breaking the whole
>>mess up into sensible chunks and I picked it up. If one programs Lisp,
>>one should learn Loop -- it is definitely worth the bother. I def
>>regret not learning it sooner.
> 
> 
> I don't really code in Lisp any more, I never felt a need for loop
> when I was coding in Lisp, and I'm trying to move towards a style of
> programming without loops (i.e. I'm playing with Haskell, which
> doesn't have loops), giving me even less need for a hairy loop macro.

Oh, my. time to trot out my "hey, X is cool, let's use it for 
everything!" rant.

Freud may not have said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.", but 
sometimes (er, always) iteration is best handled with an iteration 
construct. Any craftsman can tell you, use the right tool for the job.

the nice thing about Lisp's many paradigms is that the developer does 
not become a slave to any paradigm. I think all-rules-all-the-time 
Prolog is the poster boy for paradigm slavery. (I did try for a famous 
two months to use Prolog as a general-purpose programming language.)

Just the sentence "I'm trying to program without loops" simply screams 
"category error", if you think about it. Mind you, I had great fun using 
  a Logo which did not have iteration. Now I have fun with CL. They call 
it a big ball of mud, but I do not thnk there is a tool in that chest I 
have not used, just because that tool fit the problem best.

It only looks like a ball of mud if one does not right much code, and 
that describes most Lispniks, so no wonder we ended up with Scheme. 
Oops, wrong flamewar.

ken

-- 
Algebra: http://www.tilton-technology.com/LispNycAlgebra1.htm

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