Why don't people like lisp?

[Kenny Tilton]

dan wrote:
> Google ate my long post, so I'll make it simple.
> 
> Lisp failed (yes, it did) because of the parentheses.  Normal people
> can't parse 13 close-parens easily.

Aaaaannnnnndddd they're off! (for another four hundred messages)

Nobody looks at or counts parentheses, except in languages other than 
Lisp. We have editors that not only help keep them straight, but also 
let us move chunks of code in the meaningful semantic chunks defined by 
parentheses. So editing with parentheses is actually the best possible 
way to edit code.

>  Functional notation 

I do not think you know much about Lisp. Lisp does imperative as well as 
functional. It is a multi-paradigm language. I prefer functional, 
because it exposes the structure of my algorithm. YMMD.

> is non-intuitive and hard to read.

All code is non-intuitive and hard to read.

> The world is moving in the direction of languages like Python, 

And Python is moving in the direction of Lisp, tho I do not know if 
Python has abandoned its original modest intentions and now wants to go 
all the way and be a full-blown HLL. Already seems perty close, just not 
sure if the Mission Statement has been changed.

> fit naturally with how we speak and write.

You only /think/ you speak and write that way because you have written 
step-wise code for so long. If you are a real old fart this started with 
Fortran and Basic, maybe Assembler.

 From the above it is clear you know nothing about Lisp, so of course it 
seems strange to you. But don't you think a language an order of 
magnitude better than anything else will have to be different enough to 
seem strange?

The good news is how fast you will adjust and your old language seems 
strange.

kenny

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