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

[Jacek Generowicz]

David Garamond <davegaramond at icqmail.com> writes:

> one sentence: "syntax matters." for people in denial, make it two:
> "yes it really does."

Yes, it really does. The point that most people find difficult to
grasp is that Lisp's syntax is one of its huge strengths. (If you[*]
do not know what I mean by this, but are prepared to have your mind
expanded, then you might want to give Lisp a try. If you do not know
what I mean and are tempted to follow up with comments about the
abundance of parentheses, then don't bother; such discussions are
invariably fruitless. If you already know what I mean ... great.)

> or, rephrased: indentation and "1+1" scare people less than
> parentheses and "(add 1 1)" or something like that.

Sigh ...

  jacek > clisp
     [large startup message elided]
  [1]> (+ 2 3)
  5

Recently, I wrote a number-crunching program in Lisp. A typical
function in which look something like this:

(defun Hpp (x s z)
  #i(sqrt(Vpp(x s z)-gamma)/(x^2+s^4) -
     exp(sin(Tpp(x s))/(2*b1(x s)))))

(Incidentally, Lisp's _syntax_ made it possible for me to write a
macro which automatically re-structures my numerical functions in a
way which makes the program run 17 times faster.)

> but perhaps if lisp were invented thousands of years ago

Perhaps you last looked at Lisp thousands of years ago ...

> before math and the plus (+) operator...

Continuing the clisp session from above:

  [2]> (/ 2 3)
  2/3
  [3]> (+ 1 2/3)
  5/3
  [4]> (sqrt -1)
  #C(0 1)

Hmm ...

  jacek > python2.2
  Python 2.2.1 (#3, Jun  4 2002, 09:56:27) 
  [GCC egcs-2.91.66 19990314/Linux (egcs-1.1.2 release)] on linux2
  Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
  >>> import math
  >>> math.sqrt(-1)
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
  ValueError: math domain error
  >>> 2/3
  0
  >>> 1 + 2/3
  1

... perhaps Python was invented before math and rational and complex
numbers (yes, I *do* know Python has complex numbers, just FUDding in
your style, yes I *do* know that integer division is Python is being
fixed).

Why, in my opinion, is Lisp less popular?  There are a number of
reasons, but the most significant is probably that most people hear a
lot of lies about lisp, before they ever get to hear any of the truth.

Lisp is a slow, interpreted, purely-functional language, in which the
only datatype is the list, it needs specialst hardware to run on, is
solely responsible for the failure of AI, and died over a decade
ago. Right?

(Just in case anyone doesn't get it, _everything_ in the previous
paragraph is a lie.)




[*] Anyone reading this, that is.