Python syntax in Lisp and Scheme

[Mark Wilson]

On Thursday, October 9, 2003, at 10:43 PM, Kenny Tilton wrote:
[snip]
>
> But will one of Perl, Python, Ruby, Dylan or Smalltalk steal the 
> prize? The only way to do that is to adopt sexprs and macros,

Or linguistic elements that provide the same power as sexprs and 
macros. There is more than one way to skin a cat.

> and you can't do those without becoming Lisp, at which point you lose 
> if you do not match the CL spec.

As I recall, the CL spec was considered, at the time of its adoption, a 
"worse is better" solution and not the culmination of Lisp.

> [snip]

As a point of curiosity, are sexprs considered to be all that powerful? 
I recall reading that in the creation of Lisp, sexprs were initially 
considered a stopping point on the way to M-expressions.

Regards,

Mark Wilson