Choosing a programming language as a competitive tool

[John Schmitt]

Did we read the same article?  Was "American Beauty" about a good guy who
gets shot by a bad guy?

Yeah, he has biases, he's a Lisp guy and he explains it.  And, I didn't see
anything even remotely negative about Python.  He says that doesn't want to
live without macros.  I searched for your 'watered-down' quote and couldn't
find it.  I think that's your bias showing, not his.  :-)

And, I get to re-use a handy quote:

I'm sorry, was my bias showing again? :-)
                                    -- William Tanksley, 13 May 2000

So, no troll.  I've been lurking for a while and really dig Python, for what
it's worth.

What I got out of this was that choosing a good programming language can be
a competitive advantage.  Graham chooses Lisp.  For me this isn't a Lisp
versus Python thing.  I'm not big on cheap advocacy.  (See this article for
an explanation:
http://www.perl.com/pub/2000/12/advocacy.html?wwwrrr_20001213.txt NB This is
article is mostly about Perl, specifically  Perl advocacy.)  

Anyway, choosing Python makes good business sense for some applications and
that is something I can tell management.

John

PS Hopefully I guessed right about your email address.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Lees [mailto:debl at nonospammytheworld.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2001 8:33 PM
> To: python-list at python.org
> Subject: Re: Choosing a programming language as a competitive tool
> 
> 
> While interesting site for the history of lisp, this post may be a
> troll.  The only ref I saw to Python called it "...a watered-down lisp
> with infix syntax and no macros".  The author appears to have 
> some mild
> biases and little Python experience :)
> 
> david lees
> 
> John Schmitt wrote:
> > 
> > http://www.paulgraham.com/paulgraham/avg.html
> > 
> > I just saw this post on slashdot.org.  The author is a Lisp 
> guy and talk
> > about his experience writing viaweb (which became Yahoo 
> Stores) in Lisp and
> > why it was a competitive advantage.  Python gets mentioned 
> a few times.
> > Good reading for me.
> > 
> > John
> -- 
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>