From: Yohanes Santoso <ysantoso@...>
Date: 2002-09-19T16:10:12+09:00
Subject: Re: Python the new Lisp, what about Ruby then?

web2ed@yahoo.com (Edward Wilson) writes:

> I've been reading that Python is the new lisp.
> 
> For those Lispers in the crowd, how does Ruby compare with Lisp?  I'm

I'm a lisper and I'm laughing my ass out hearing that python is
equated with lisp. Show me a language where there is no difference
between data and code, and which has a runtime macro system that can
be used to modify the language, and then and only then it might start
to challenge lisp.

The main power of lisp is the language is so malleable, to solve a
problem, you simply modify the language to suit the problem (this
concept is foreign to most people who haven't touch lisp) and the rest
becomes much easier. The secondary power of lisp comes from the fact
that (almost) everything is a list. This consistency and purity helps
a lot.

Ruby has more lisp influence than python. For example the proc block
is, I suspect, derived from lisp. Not to mention Matz also comes from
the lisp world, so probably his mind is opened to all those wonderful
possibilities that he later implemented in Ruby. Ruby also has a
(almost) consistent OO-view of the world and itself. In fact this
consistency and purity is why I was interested in Ruby even after
discovering the power of lisp.

YS.