[OPINION] - does language really matter if they all do the samething?

[Ville Vainio]

>>>>> "Dietrich" == Dietrich Epp <dietrich at zdome.net> writes:

    Dietrich> Example: I wrote a project in Python which reads some
    Dietrich> data files and uses them to make a decision (sort of).
    Dietrich> I got it to about 90% functionality, and realized that
    Dietrich> the last 10% was extremely difficult to do with Python.
    Dietrich> After writing one Lisp macro of exactly 13 lines, I
    Dietrich> rewrote the entire program, incorporating the data into
    Dietrich> Lisp files which were not only much shorter, but much
    Dietrich> clearer, easier to read, etc.  I just couldn't think of
    Dietrich> a way to write this program in Python without a lot of
    Dietrich> code replication.

Soon you can, with projects like
http://www.caddr.com/code/lython/.

I can imagine problems like yours can be fixed by writing a teensy bit
of Lisp to process the data, and then throw the results back to good
old Python to do the rest. Lisp-like stuff can be integrated and
implemented quite easily in Python, even if we lose the native
compilation aspect of Lisp.

    Dietrich> never consider doing in anything but Python, except the
    Dietrich> occasional hardcore text processor which causes physical
    Dietrich> pain to write in anything but Perl or Ruby.

Any examples? Off the top of my head I can't think of anything...

-- 
Ville Vainio   http://tinyurl.com/2prnb