Why is python not written in C++ ?

[Roy Smith]

In article <i37ire$7gd$1 at panix5.panix.com>, aahz at pythoncraft.com (Aahz) 
wrote:

> http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/98/May/stroustrup.html

The same story has been floating around for eons, just with the names 
changed.  I saw one where Wirth was ostensibly making fun of the people 
who didn't understand that Pascal was all just a joke.

I'm sure if you go back far enough, you can find a McCarthy / Lisp 
version.  It probably goes something like, "So, anyway, we tried to 
figure out what was the most absurd way to abuse punctuation we could 
imagine.  Somebody suggested that every program would have to end with 
37 close parentheses.  When we finally stopped laughing, we started 
sketching out a grammar on the chalkboard that would let us do that".