merits of Lisp vs Python

[Ken Tilton]

greg wrote:
> Bill Atkins wrote:
> 
>> And mistakes in nesting show up as mistakes in
>> indenting.
> 
> 
> Er, hang on a moment... how do you *know* when you've
> got a mistake in indending? You must be visually
> verifying the indentation... rather like one does
> with Python code...

Absolutely, and you are not disagreeing with Mr. Atkins, tho you seem to 
think you are.

But with Lisp one does not have to clean up the indentation manually 
after thrashing away at ones code. As I type each right parens I eyeball 
its partner as the editor highlights it to make sure I have not missed 
anything, then give the re-indent command and eyeball the result. It 
/is/ still possible to screw up because I work fast and loose, but only 
very rarely do I end up with a parens in the wrong place, and then the 
compiler finds something to whine about.

ken

-- 
Algebra: http://www.tilton-technology.com/LispNycAlgebra1.htm

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