merits of Lisp vs Python

[sjdevnull at yahoo.com]

Bill Atkins wrote:
> > On the plus side, Python makes less demands on the
> > capabilities of the editor. All you really need
> > is block-shifting commands. Bracket matching is
> > handy for expressions but not vital, and you
> > certainly don't need bracket-based auto-indenting.
>
> Oh, please.  So we should restrict the power of the languages we
> choose just to make sure that our code can be edited in Notepad?

In the real world, it's a non-negligible consideration, IMO.  I find
myself needing to write code on machines that aren't my usual dev
machine at least a couple of times a year, and not having to install a
particular editor is nice (especially in terms of keeping the
modifications to someone else's machine down to a minimum).

It's hardly a dealbreaker for a particular language, but it's far from
worthless.