Is Python a Zen language?

[The Eternal Squire]

Kay Schluehr wrote:
> John Coleman wrote:
> > Ron Stephens wrote:
> > > Actually, Python has the distinction of being both a great tool
> > > language *and* a great Zen language. That's what makes Python so cool
> > > ;-)))
> > >
> > > Ron Stephens
> > > Python411
> > > www.awaretek.com/python/index.html
> >
> > This would explain why the question is so hard to answer. It is a
> > slam-dunk that Lisp is Zen and VBA is tool - but python really is a bit
> > hard to classify. This is somewhat similar to the way that python seems
> > to straddle the gap between imperative and functional languages. It has
> > something from each worlds (whether it has the *best* from each world
> > is a separate question)
> >
> > -John Coleman
>
> There is something that worries me about Lisp. If you are interested in
> the history of Lisp and some non-technical aspects of its culture I can
> recommend the writings of Richard Gabriel, who was one of the leaders
> of the CL standardisation commitee and founder of the Lisp company
> Lucid in the mid 80s that gone down a few years later. As it turned out
> that time Lisp was not capable to survive in what we call today a
> "heterogenous environment". It was strongly too self-centered. So I
> would actually invert you categories and say that a good tool achieves
> to have a non-dual nature instead of a strong I. With Lisp you might be
> a god but according to the Zen philosophy a god is a subordinated
> character that preserves the illusion of self-identity. A fine thing
> about a tool in this context is that you have to define its identity by
> a relationship to something that it is not.
>
> I have at times the impression that many people who talk about Zen
> philosophy confuse it with some home brewn mixture of platonism with
> its transgressive move towards the true reality, a stoic hedonism of
> contemplation and the taoistic being-in-doing. Zen on the other side is
> more radical: if you erase yourself there is no-one "who" is in the
> flow but chances are that you and the computer over there are the same
> thing.
>
> Kay

Too right.  If programming language was Zen there would be no
keyboards, just a telepathic interface.

But I have to admit I enjoy a solidly platonic relationship with
Python.  I prefer to
write things in the most beautiful way rather than in the most
efficient.  Its cost me a couple jobs, but the integrity of the product
always remains intact.

The Eternal Squire