Python vs. C#

[Michele Simionato]

Doug Tolton <dtolton at yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<070hjvou8s33gvmom1t45t3avlkhudsstn at 4ax.com>...
> "Brandon J. Van Every" <vanevery at 3DProgrammer.com> wrote in message
> news:<3f36af20 at shknews01>...
>> I'm beginning to think that within 5 years, no new applications will
>> be
>> written in C++.
> On 11 Aug 2003 05:33:38 -0700, mis6 at pitt.edu (Michele Simionato)
> wrote:
> 
> >?? Are you joking or what ?? Did you learn anything from Fortran lesson?
> >Or from Lisp? Programming languages *never* die!
> 
> Hey, watch the Lisp cracks!! :-P
> 
> Seriously Lisp is the Mother of all programming languages.  So much of
> the features that are being implemented today come from Lisp it's not
> even funny.  If you want to see what they are, take a gander at Paul
> Graham's website:
> www.paulgraham.com
> 
> Lisp seriously is my favorite language.  It's still got quite a few
> features that other lesser languages are working on implementing.

I cited Fortran and Lisp because they are the oldest programming
languages and they are still used. Of course, not by everybody.
Only be the "hobbyists and cranks" according to Brandon van Every's
terminology. Strangely enough,  the "hobbyists and cranks" category 
includes most of the academical world.
Fortran is still *very* hard to beat in its domain of application,
number crunching, and its library support is simply incredible. It will
never die (even if I see a definite trend in converting Fortran
applications to C++, at least in my domain of expertise, High Energy
Physics). About Lisp, it is simply the most powerful language ever
invented for abstract thinking. It will never die, too. 
Nevertheless, I would use Scheme, not Lisp, if I had to choose. But
I don't have to choose, since Python does already everything I
want ;)


                                   Michele