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

[Brad Hards]

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On Mon, 11 Nov 2002 18:50, 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?

I would feel that my question had been answered (unless, of course, the 
question was phrased as "I've looked at [URL] and I don't understand X").

Whether I thought it "newbie friendly" depends on the exact phrasing. Clearly 
something along the  lines of "RTFM at [URL}, you #$%^!@ idiot" isn't a 
pleasant experience, while your text of "That's covered in the Python 
tutorial -- look at [URL]" is quite friendly. It is also a better use of your 
time to answer questions that aren't covered in tutorials and FAQs, than to 
regurgitate an existing on-line resource.

I am possibly not the best person to ask though. I've written documentation 
for other projects, and I've written the words "This is explained in the 
Linux USB guide. If you still have trouble, please provide more details" or 
equivalent too many times already. So my opinion may not be typical of most 
python beginners. 

I can say that I think the python community is a lot more tolerant and has a 
lot better explanations than most newsgroups/mailing-lists. As an example, 
linux-kernel is a pretty rough place :)

Brad

- -- 
http://linux.conf.au. 22-25Jan2003. Perth, Aust. I'm registered. Are you?
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