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by flavio81 2957 days ago
>The Lisp community likes to solve lots of problems with macros. The Python community doesn't. For 95% of the usages, neither approach is better than the other, they are just different

I'd like to interject for a moment.

As a software engineer with some years of using Python for financial software, and afterwards switching to Common Lisp, i diverge. In my opinion, Lisp macros make all the difference in the world, and I really miss them when using a language that doesn't support them. Sure, anything can be implemented on most languages including Python, but there is a big difference in the maintainability and clearness of the resulting code, as well as in effort.

So, are you abandoning us, Peter? If not nil, i will signal 'tears and no handler-bind will recover me from this condition. (joking of course)

Anyways, thanks for PAIP, it will always be in my heart.

(Note for the uninitiated: PAIP stands for "Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence: Case Studies in Common Unpython", a classic book by Peter Norvig who is part of the big PPP of Lisp literature: Paul (Graham), Peter (Norvig), and Peter (Seibel))

1 comments

"The Lisp community likes to solve lots of problems with macros" sounds like "Mozart likes to use a lot of notes". I do not like to use macros, I like to hide boilerplate so the semantics stand out. And so I can type less. I do not like typing. But Siri can stuff it. I digress.