Why is Python popular, while Lisp and Scheme aren't?
Pascal Costanza
costanza at web.de
Sun Dec 1 18:44:56 EST 2002
maney at pobox.com wrote:
> Every language has a speed bump - some amount of new and/or different
> stuff that you just have to work through before it all starts to make
> sense. If the new language is very similar to one(s) already known,
> the bump may be so small you hardly notice it; other times it may
> involve learning a whole new style (OO or functional are common
> examples) and it may be considerable. Lisp is, if not unique, still
> unusual in that it has a second speed bump, because its syntax is
> extremely awkward to deal with until you've acclimated to a suitable
> IDE or syntax-aware editor. This conceptually unnecessary additional
> barrier to entry must surely help hold down the rate at which new
> converts make it through to become happy Lisp users.
I think I could agree to most of this, except for the "conceptually
unnecessary additional barrier" bit. In fact, that "barrier" is
conceptually necessary. You cannot change the syntax of Lisp in
non-trivial ways without turning it into a very different language at
the conceptual level.
Pascal
--
Given any rule, however ‘fundamental’ or ‘necessary’ for science, there
are always circumstances when it is advisable not only to ignore the
rule, but to adopt its opposite. - Paul Feyerabend
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