Generator expressions v/s list comprehensions

[Steve Holden]

Alex Martelli wrote:

> Michael J. Fromberger <Michael.J.Fromberger at Clothing.Dartmouth.EDU>
> wrote:
>    ...
> 
>>>Unfortunately, this wish is totally unrealistic -- obviously people do
>>>come up with cool ideas such as the iterator protocol, and generators,
>>>after the language has been around for a while.  
>>
>>All the cool features Python has adopted existed a long time before they
>>made their way into Python itself.
> 
> 
> Almost all, not all.  As I repeatedly explained, for example, generator
> comprehensions are not quite like anything in other languages (though
> you can surely find _similarities_, of course).
> 
Indeed, and the reason I like Python is that it has some aspects of Icon 
mixed in with perhaps the most easily-accessible object-oriented 
features of any of the programming languages I've learned.
> 
> 
>>Frankly, I think if the Lisp world had managed to build the same 
>>friendly and welcoming community Python seems to have, it would have 
>>taken over the world a quarter-century ago.
> 
> 
> I think most people's reaction to (==against) Lisp's parentheses and
> prefix syntax is more intense than that to Python's significant
> whitespace, which appears quite natural to most non-programmers even
> though many programmers inured to block delimiters do react strongly
> against it.  It's hard enough for Python to keep its community welcoming
> and friendly when you hear some clueless dweeb rant against indendation
> for the thousandth time, I think the Lisp community would have had to be
> made up of saints to be still friendly and welcoming after a _million_
> newcomers raised their whining against parentheses.
> 
... which it clearly isn't :-).

I do think the Python community is just a little out-of-the-ordinary, 
which is what keeps me (and, I suspect, you: great to see you on the 
wires again) coming back to c.l.py.

regards
  Steve