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The future we were promised when we bought into what lisp would/could be, with all the practicality we see now in python. Norvig wrote about it more here: http:

The future we were promised when we bought into what lisp would/could be, with all the practicality we see now in python. Norvig wrote about it more here: http://www.norvig.com/python-lisp.html http://www.norvig.com/python-lisp.html It was from that article when I gave python a serious try and it stuck with me as a go to language for all the small things one does often, but also exploratory programming as well (with iPython/jupyter).

nikofeyn 8y ago
have you ever tried f#? if you think python is what lisp could be (a little confused by that...see racket...but...), then i am curious what you think about something like f#. it’s like python in a way, in that it has oop and uses indentation and not brackets, but it is so much more. and it’s more regular in its semantics. everything returns a value.
- civilitty 8y ago
  "The future we were promised" sounds like he's talking more about a combination of ergonomics and productivity that were promised by Lisp but it never got there because the community just didn't expand to the same size. Python is so widely used that the combination of adoption and design decisions is in the sweet spot we were "promised" by Lisp advocates. F# could also play that role since it can access the rest of the .Net ecosystem but for Python is more approachable as an OOP-ish language.
  - nikofeyn 8y ago
    you can program f# fully as an oop language, where i think it is still more approachable than python for that. add in async, first class events, tasks, observables, etc., and you have a very approachable but high ceiling with f#. and the syntax is still cleaner than python.
    - hannofcart 8y ago
      If you like F# but wish you could leverage the Python ecosystem, then try http://coconut-lang.org http://coconut-lang.org
  - Keyframe 8y ago
    You're exactly right about what I've meant. It's not only about the language. In fact, I'd argue it has the least weight of all of the variables. There are various nice languages (to use) which just aren't there regarding publicly available knowledge, libraries, tools, manpower, etc. (lisp', scheme, d1, Ada even...). Python, while not perfect, sits quite comfortably where you could say it has it all.

nikofeyn 8y ago

have you ever tried f#? if you think python is what lisp could be (a little confused by that...see racket...but...), then i am curious what you think about something like f#. it’s like python in a way, in that it has oop and uses indentation and not brackets, but it is so much more. and it’s more regular in its semantics. everything returns a value.

civilitty 8y ago
"The future we were promised" sounds like he's talking more about a combination of ergonomics and productivity that were promised by Lisp but it never got there because the community just didn't expand to the same size. Python is so widely used that the combination of adoption and design decisions is in the sweet spot we were "promised" by Lisp advocates. F# could also play that role since it can access the rest of the .Net ecosystem but for Python is more approachable as an OOP-ish language.
- nikofeyn 8y ago
  you can program f# fully as an oop language, where i think it is still more approachable than python for that. add in async, first class events, tasks, observables, etc., and you have a very approachable but high ceiling with f#. and the syntax is still cleaner than python.
  - hannofcart 8y ago
    If you like F# but wish you could leverage the Python ecosystem, then try http://coconut-lang.org http://coconut-lang.org
- Keyframe 8y ago
  You're exactly right about what I've meant. It's not only about the language. In fact, I'd argue it has the least weight of all of the variables. There are various nice languages (to use) which just aren't there regarding publicly available knowledge, libraries, tools, manpower, etc. (lisp', scheme, d1, Ada even...). Python, while not perfect, sits quite comfortably where you could say it has it all.