Python syntax in Lisp and Scheme

[Daniel P. M. Silva]

Andrew Dalke wrote:
> [...]
> What I said was that Python is *not* an application of
> Greespun's Tenth Rule of programming because 1) it isn't
> bug-ridden, and 2) because Python explores ideas which
> which had no influence on Lisp's development -- user
> studies of non-professional programmers.

Do you know where I can find those studies?  I'm very intested in their
findings :)

By the way, what's a non-professional programmer?

> Where are the user studies which suggested () over [], or that
> "car" is better than "first"/"1st" or that "cdr" is better than
> "rest"/"rst"?
> 
> Yes, I know that the early teletypes might not have had
> [ or ], and that car and cdr come from register names on
> the machine Lisp was first implemented on.  If that's
> indeed the justification then there may be a Lisp-ish language
> which is equally as powerful, equally as elegant, etc *and*
> which is slightly easier to learn and type.  But it wasn't chosen,
> and it won't be used because of good social reasons: a huge
> existing code base and people who now have Lisp "in their
> fingers" and don't want to retrain for the slight advantage
> that others might get.

Well, if you count scheme as a lisp...

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- Daniel