How explain why Python is easier/nicer than Lisp which has a simpler grammar/syntax?

[Terry Reedy]

On 8/7/2020 11:46 AM, Chris Angelico wrote:

> My point is that doing Fibonacci recursively is arguably more elegant
> while being materially worse at performance.

This is a common misconception.  Linear iteration and tail recursion are 
equivalent.  The issue is calculating values once versus multiple times. 
  Here is the fast recursion equivalent to the fast iteration.

def fib(n, pair=(1,0)):
    previous, current = pair
    if n:
       return fib(n-1, (current, previous + current))
    else:
       return current

for i in range(10): print(fib(i), end=' ')
# 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34

One can also do the slow algorithm, with wasteful duplication, 
iteratively with one or two stacks of values instead of the hidden stack 
of execution frames.  I don't remember the details right now without 
checking a text.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy