Why aren't we all speaking LISP now?

[Alex Martelli]

"Jürgen A. Erhard" <juergen.erhard at gmx.net> wrote in message
news:mailman.989710281.2298.python-list at python.org...
    ...
> For me a striking similarity is that, well, a number of people seem to
> have quite a hard time grasping Python's "variables".  People coming
> from a(ny) Lisp background usually don't have such problems.  They can
> just see them as "bindings"...

Doesn't a very close "striking similarity" apply to Java, C#, Eiffel,
and sundry other languages...?  These are more complex (overt
typing, certain types have copy semantics rather than reference
semantics for "their" variables) but the base issue remains -- an
assignment (except maybe for certain peculiar types) copies a
reference to the RHS and does _not_ affect whatever (if any)
the LHS was previously referring to.  Visual Basic is most complex
here, by having two different kinds of assignments (LET and SET,
but not with the same semantics as those Lisp keywords, and LET
being implicit if neither is specified for a given assignment) -- one
of the things that give most trouble to VB newbies in my limited
experience.


Alex