From: "Mills Thomas (app1tam)" Date: 2002-09-20T00:46:46+09:00 Subject: RE: Python the new Lisp, what about Ruby then? I am an old LISPer (I only hack emacs code now) and I try to avoid waxing nostalgic. Nostalgia covers a host of ills. BUT (and you knew I'd say that) I have never had such a grand experience like developing with LISP. Someone else said it in this thread and it bears repeating: LISP is so malleable. It can be functional, data-oriented, object-oriented, and anything in between. You can think and the code flows from the fingertips. The freedom to just throw in some extra functionality or hook on an extra bit of data that ends up being code... It still boggles the mind. I know you didn't ask for compilers but I must shed a tear that nothing like the Symbolics LISP environment was repeated for mainstream work. In '85, I could be debugging code in a visual, graphical editor, hit a problem, view the bad code, and replace the errant code (with compiled or interpreted code) and keep going right from where it erred. I've seen nothing like it since. Talk about agile... Am I waxing nostalgic? Okay, I confess, guilty as charged. I guess its true what they say about first love (I had already seen COBOL, PASCAL, FORTRAN, PL1, etc. I did NOT love them)... I'm brand-spanking new to Ruby, but it is looking awfully promising! Now if only I can arrange to develop some real code with it (I work in a very conservative company). Drew -----Original Message----- From: web2ed@yahoo.com [mailto:web2ed@yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2002 7:18 PM To: ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org Subject: Python the new Lisp, what about Ruby then? I've been reading that Python is the new lisp. For those Lispers in the crowd, how does Ruby compare with Lisp? I'm not concerned about the compilers and interpreters, but more about the samantic limitations or freedoms of each. I know Matz hacked on Lisp before inventing Ruby, so I can only imagine that if Lisp had something worth holding onto Ruby would certainly provide it. //ed