Is Python a Zen language?

[André]

John Coleman wrote:
> Crutcher wrote:
> > You are a very silly person. You have tripped so many of my internet
> > bullshit triggers that I think perhaps you are trolling. All languages
> > alter the way you think. They structure the nature of questions you can
> > ask, and problems you can solve.
> >
> > Do you understand 'Zen', by which I mean, have you devoted at least 5
> > years of study (real, 5+ hrs/week studdy) to it? (btw, I have not). If
> > your answer is no, then you are just using this to be cool.
> >
> > And if you can say 'no value judgment is intended by my
> > classification', you have absolutely no right to talk about the nature
> > of language, let alone go about labeling things 'Zen languages'.
> > Honestly, classification is an act of valuation, it requires an
> > introspective assesment of your personal language system. This stuff is
> > _old_, not new, not novell.
> >

Wouldn't that be "novel"?   Or, perhaps I should rather ask:
Do you understand 'novell', by which I mean, have you devoted at least
5 years of study (real, 5+ hrs/week study) to it? (btw, I have not...
but I have used Novell software products for longer than that ;-)

> > Go read a book.
> > Like this one: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/the_book.html
>
> If appearing silly is the price of satisfying your curiousity then so
> be it. I would, however, like to point out that there is a well
> established usage of the word "Zen" in computer science.
[snip; excellent answer from John deleted.]
> -John Coleman

If I may add: word and their usage is constantly evolving, sometimes
through mistakes, other times through borrowing from other languages or
disciplines.  (my favourite is the transcription mistake of the word
"collineare" where the hand-written "ne" was transcribed as "m",
leading to the English word "collimate" ... but I digress.)
Some "purist", like the Academie Francaise (or, apparently "Crutcher")
seem to believe that "one" can restrict the meaning of words, or the
evolution of language.  The rest of us are happy to let language
evolution take place to facilitate communication. Kudos to John for his
examples of usage of "zen" and "tao" in computer related disciplines.

Personally, I would say that Python is a zen language, not so much in
the sense that it transforms the way of thinking, but rather as it
doesn't get in the way of thinking.

André