[Tutor] Language truce

[Tim Peters]

[alan.gauld@bt.com]
> I wasn't aware I'd started a language war!

Na, you didn't.

> Scheme is a great language as is Python, I use both. I was commenting
> on the rather narrow presentation of programming in SCIP.
>
> Scheme as a language actually supports other constructs, which
> is the point I was making the book in question simply chooses
> not to discuss the loop or do commands and use recursion as if
> it were the only choice. ie i was objecting to the book not Scheme.

Well, "Scheme" is a family of languages, and even "Official Scheme" has gone
thru many revisions.  I do believe that, at the start, it didn't have a loop
macro, and SICP dates back quite a while.  From an academic view, I doubt
that the SICP authors would use it even now:  they're not trying to teach
*pragmatics*, and the loop macro is "only a convenience".  In the half a
page it would take to explain it, they could come up with three more
exercises to explode your brain instead <wink>.

> Ho hum, sorry if I've offended anyone. And BTW the book is
> actually very good at what it does do. And many Pythonistas
> would find it interesting reading.

All true.  Hard going for a beginner, though!  SICP is really about
"Computer Science" more than *programming*.