On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 14:09:11 +0100 André Thieme <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
#> Sounds like "Blub" to me: #> http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html Well, too bad for you... #> I will quote some parts of it: #> <snip> #> "By induction, the only programmers in a position to see all the #> differences in power between the various languages are those who #> understand the most powerful one." This statement is, clearly, right.What I can not comprehend is how Lispers tend to mis-read "comprehend" above as "think is the best". Some of us *do* comprehend Lisp, understand that there are uses for macros, just do not see the overwhelming need for them in everyday work (given sufficiently rich language core). I other words, people (in this sub-thread, at least) do not argue that Python is *as powerful* as Lisp -- we understand there are things macros can do easier/faster/more conveniently than functions or other features Python has. Lisp *is* more powerful than Lisp. You win. What we try to understand is why would you think Lisp is a better programming language than Python :) Sure, there are times I wish Python had macros. I would be able to save a couple of keystrokes here and there. But at other times, I am glad it does not have them, because when I read Bad Code (commonly used synonym for "somebody else's code") I do not need to wonder what aif and 1000 others, similar things really do. In my experience, *if* somebody really needs aif, it can be done without macros. But without macros people will only introduce such thing if it does save significantly more than 3 or 4 lines of code in the whole project -- which is a good thing in my book. YMMV. I by far prefer to have it = timeConsumingCalculations() if it: use(it) five (or even ten) times in a medium sized project than to have to figure out what "aif" means. If the idiom is used 100 times, then something is wrong: either system should be redesigned or introducing "aif" is a good idea (but then Python idiom works just as good as Lisp one). YMMV. -- Best wishes, Slawomir Nowaczyk ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] ) There are 2 kinds of people in the world - those that divide the people into 2 groups, and those who don't. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
