On Fri, Aug 7, 2020 at 1:16 AM Christian Seberino <cseber...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Python is my favorite language and the easiest to use in my opinion. > > Lisp has a far simpler grammar and syntax. A beginner I think could > learn Lisp much faster than Python. > > Therefore, it seems like Lisp *should* be easier to work with and more > readable. I don't feel like it is easier to use but I can't see *why* that > is. > > My best guess..... > > Lisp pros: simpler syntax > Lisp cons: prefix notation, lots more parentheses > > My hypothesis is that the cons slightly outweigh the pros of Lisp > which is why Python is easier to work with and is more readable in > the end?
Ook has an even simpler syntax. It has just three syntactic elements: "Ook." "Ook?" "Ook!" The purpose of code is to represent a programmer's intentions in a way that can be understood by other programmers, and by the interpreter/compiler. Simpler syntax allows a simpler parser, but it doesn't create expressiveness. If your definition is based entirely on how quickly a beginner would be able to learn the details of how a language is run, then that's missing a lot of the point of readability. The point of learning a language isn't that you can take a piece of pre-existing code and figure out what it'll do, step by step; the point is to be able to encode your intentions in that language, and to read the code and understand the other programmer's intentions. That's why we have comments - the language would be (slightly) simpler without them, but we would lose an important aspect of that programmer-to-programmer communication. Ook is one of the least expressive and most simple languages there is. Python is far more expressive, far more detailed... and far FAR more useful. Lisp is elegant and simple, but it's also less expressive than Python is. That's why Python is (often) easier to work with. ChrisA -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
