[Biopython-dev] language war

[Jeffrey Chang]

Here's a python quote for Peter Norvig, someone who does understand CONS
and the importance and elegance of LISP syntax:

"Python has the philosophy of making sensible compromises that make the
easy things very easy, and don't preclude too many hard things. In my
opinion it does a very good job. The easy things are easy, the harder
things are progressively harder, and you tend not to notice the
inconsistencies. Lisp has the philosophy of making fewer compromises: of
providing a very powerful and totally consistent core. This can make Lisp
harder to learn because you operate at a higher level of abstraction right
from the start and because you need to understand what you're doing,
rather than just relying on what feels or looks nice. But it also means
that in Lisp it is easier to add levels of abstraction and complexity;
Lisp makes the very hard things not too hard."

         from http://www.norvig.com/python-lisp.html


Jeff




On Wed, 11 Apr 2001, Andrew Dalke wrote:

> Now here's fight'n words from
>  http://www.biolisp.org/biolinks.html  :)
> 
> > Python is approximately Lisp re-invented by folks who
> > apparently understood neither CONS, nor the importance
> > and elegance of Lisp syntax!
> 
> Spoken by someone who doesn't understand O(1) lookup nor
> the importance and readability of Python syntax!
> 
>                     Andrew
>                     dalke at acm.org
> 
> 
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