July 11, 2006
11:09 a.m.
I can say it stronger. Any resemblance between Python and Scheme or Lisp is purely a coincidence. Neither language is in Python's ancestry, at least not explicitly; I'd never used or tried to learn Scheme when I started Python (still haven't) and my Lisp experience was limited to copying Emacs startup code from friends (still is).
Python resembles Lisp like an octopus eye resembles a mammalian eye: they have lots in common because they're both pretty good solutions to similar problems. Deciding whether it's Python or Lisp that has the retina fitted back-to-front is left as an exercise for the reader. -- g