checking if a list is empty

[Prasad, Ramit]

> Someone who knows how to program is never clueless starting a new
>language.  Newbie, may be, but he knows most of the constructions
>and semantic principles to look for; most of it is learning the syntax.

I claim to be able to program (Java/Python), but would be absolutely lost programming in Lisp. It is more than just "learning the syntax", it includes a thought paradigm as well.

Just like I claim to be able to do math, but severely suck at RPN math. (Okay, that analogy is bad but it is all I can come up with at the moment.)

Ramit



Ramit Prasad | JPMorgan Chase Investment Bank | Currencies Technology
712 Main Street | Houston, TX 77002
work phone: 713 - 216 - 5423


-----Original Message-----
From: python-list-bounces+ramit.prasad=jpmchase.com at python.org [mailto:python-list-bounces+ramit.prasad=jpmchase.com at python.org] On Behalf Of Hans Georg Schaathun
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 1:06 PM
To: python-list at python.org
Subject: Re: checking if a list is empty

On 11 May 2011 16:26:40 GMT, Steven D'Aprano
  <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
: > 1. My concern was not about clueless newbies.  They need to
: >   learn.  My concern is about experienced scientists and engineers who
: >   are simply new to python.
: 
:  Which makes them clueless newbies *about Python*. I don't care how 
:  experienced they are in astrophysics or biology or calculating the 
:  average airspeed of an unladen swallow.

:  Yeah, life is hard and then you die, and scientists don't even get paid 
:  that much. So what? Do physicists write their scientific papers about 
:  string theory with the thought "What if some Python programmer who knows 
:  nothing about string theory is reading this? I better dumb it down."

That depends on the purpose of that particular paper, but the real 
question is, who writes the software to test that string theory 
empirically?  Please tell.

-- 
:-- Hans Georg
-- 
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