merits of Lisp vs Python

[Slawomir Nowaczyk]

On Sat, 09 Dec 2006 21:59:58 -0500
Ken Tilton <kentilton at gmail.com> wrote:

#> > Could it be because of people like J Shrager who writes things like this?
#> > 
#> > "Can't you just expand the language via macros to create whatever facility
#> > of this sort [major new features with new syntax] you need..."
#> 
#> The context was CLOS. Something that big needs new syntax. 

Really? What if we *do not want* anything that big in Python?

#> > (This thread, dated 8 Dec 2006 23:38:02 -0800)
#> > 
#> > To someone outside of Lisp, that looks like "I can make Lisp look like any
#> > language I like in just a few lines."
#> 
#> On the contrary,

And you are the right person to say how things look like for *someone
outside Lisp* exactly why?

#> Your hands must be getting sore from banging that drum so hard and so
#> long -- has it ever occurred to you that good programmers concerned
#> with power do not obfuscate code?

Has it ever occurred to you that some of us need to read code written by
not-so-good programmers?

#> We love the chance to preach to the unsaved, so we are indebted to
#> you for the many chances to clarify, but something tells me I should
#> check the c.l.p archives to make sure I am not chatting away happily
#> with the village idiot. :)

Would you do me a favour and check the same thing on c.l.l while you are
at it?

#> > And that implies that to read a Lisp program, one might need to be
#> > able to read code that looks like Lisp, or Smalltalk, or Prolog, or
#> > Fortran, or all of those, or whatever bizarre syntax the developer
#> > wanted it to look like.
#> 
#> "I don't want to think, I just want to bang on de drum all day. I
#> don't want to learn, just want to bang on de drum all day."

Too bad for you.

Steven has a valid point here, BTW.

#> > Sure. But in the real world of programming, most developers aren't
#> > good developers, they are merely average
#> 
#> Two questions: do you really voluntarily use libraries from crappy
#> developers?

Voluntarily as in "in my work place"? I mean, I *am* voluntarily staying
employed, if you wish look at it this way...

#> Second, you think a language can stop people from writing bad code?

No. But writing bad code can be made more or less difficult.

-- 
 Best wishes,
   Slawomir Nowaczyk
     ( Slawomir.Nowaczyk at cs.lth.se )

"Consequences, shmonsequences! So long as I'm rich!" -- Daffy Duck