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

[Alex Martelli]

Robin Munn wrote:

> Brad Hards <bhards at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
>> I'm certainly amazed at the tolerance people have for questions that are
>> readily answered in a number of on-line tutorials, and in both the Python
>> books that I have (Learning Python and the Python Cookbook). In the end,
>> the friendly attitude may be the killer feature.
> 
> Out of curiosity, do you think a response like: "That's covered in the
> Python tutorial -- look at [URL]" will strike a newbie as friendly or
> not? I ask because that's the kind of answer I will tend to write when
> I'm in a hurry. Sometimes I will take the time to phrase the answer in
> my own words, but often I won't want to duplicate the work that someone
> else has already done in writing that tutorial. So if you were a newbie
> getting a curt response like that, would you feel it was a brushoff, or
> would you feel like your question had been answered?

If the URL was a reasonably short page most of which was about
answering my question, I'd feel quite happy.

If the URL was to a large document of which maybe 10%, if that,
is about answering my question, with all of the rest providing
generically-interesting information that doesn't however have to
do with answering my specific question, I'd probably feel I have
been "given a brushoff".


Alex