Wood, metal and plastic [was: Re: Why do we call python scripting?]

[Paul Prescod]

Paul Jackson wrote:
> 
> We need a new word - though until Python has a competitor, that
> is difficult.  Human brains don't do well picking names for
> classes with one known member.  The sound of one hand clapping
> or some such.
> 
> Or perhaps Python _does_ have plastic competitors.
> 
> Are there other "plastic" languages out there that I don't
> know about?  

It has always seemed to me that Python's nearest linguistic sibling is
Smalltalk. Smalltalk is, in turn, Lisp with an "OO twist."

> (Actually, the way I've heard some of the Lisp crowd speak of
> their various dialects and common usage patterns, that sounds
> pretty plastic to me.  Python differs in having a syntax
> more like the main stream languages, and in not presuming an
> elaborate support environment, both of which make Python much
> more accessible to a main stream programmer, for main stream
> systems, like myself and the systems to which I program.)

Smalltlk has these same weaknesses. Were it otherwise Smalltalk would be
much more popular by now.

 Paul Prescod