Why is Python popular, while Lisp and Scheme aren't?

[David Eppstein]

In article <aqhmib$ei8$2 at solaris.cc.vt.edu>,
 Carl Banks <imbosol at vt.edu> wrote:

> Python is more like Lisp than most other languages, though.  It's
> similar semantically.

This makes little sense to me.  Even the most basic data structures are 
different: Lisp is based around singly linked lists while Python uses 
vectors (with efficient random access unlike Lisp lists) and 
dictionaries.  They are also not especially similar in programming 
style, although both are capable of being used with a wide variety of 
styles. The most important similarity I see is that in both languages, 
values have types but variables are untyped, but that was also true in 
radically different languages such as Snobol and APL; is that really 
enough to conclude that Python and Lisp are more like each other than 
anything else?

-- 
David Eppstein       UC Irvine Dept. of Information & Computer Science
eppstein at ics.uci.edu http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/