[bmitc]

Thanks for those, but I have read them already. His comments on his book and Python are not really relevant in today's world and are more of a historical interest. Also, I don't really understand the timeline from his comment and am not familiar enough with the book to know its history. Did the first edition use Python? (I am aware of his and Russell's prior AI book.)

[kgwgk]

> Did the first edition use Python?

I think you may be somewhat confused there. What book are you talking about?

Edit: I also wonder why his remarks ten or twenty years ago about Python being close to pseudocode "are not really relevant in today's world".

[bmitc]

What am I confused about other than what I asked? There’s two books. The first is Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming, which used Common Lisp, and the second is Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, which to my knowledge primarily uses or encourages Python. I was trying to place what time Norvig was referring to in the linked comment. He mentions his book, which I assumed to be the modern approach one. The first edition came out in 1995 and the second in 2003. Python came out first in 1991, and he joined Google in 2001. His comment makes it hard to know when he was referring to (and thus even what book), and what I don’t know is if the first edition of the modern approach book used Python or if that came later in the second edition (without going and finding copies of the editions myself).

[kgwgk]

Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach is "his and Russell's prior AI book". It seemed as if you were talking about a different book.

In the HN comment he says "the Lisp code that Russell and I had online" so I don't think it's difficult to guess it's indeed AIMA he's talking about.

I don't think that the book, in any of the four editions, "primarily uses or encourages Python". I have not checked them all, but I expect the book to still use pseudocode exclusively. Elsewhere, they provide implementations in different languages: https://github.com/aimacode

[bmitc]

It seems my remark that confused you is that I indeed made a mistake about thinking Russell was a co-author on PAIP, which he is not. Although, I thought it was clear I was talking about AIMA and referring to PAIP in my parenthetical comment. I feel it's nicer to just ask a question rather than to say someone is confused.

I still think it's fair to say the book encourages the use of Python if one of the primary authors publishes solutions in that language over existing solutions in another language and the author promotes Python. Of course, it seems over time other languages have grown into providing solutions. I don't have the book (because of its exorbitant price) but do have PAIP, so I can't say for sure. Even the GitHub repo for the Lisp implementation says its out of date and was used back in 1995. This latter point is relevant and was what I was curious about. Were Norvig's comments referring to a time before the first edition was published, or was it after the first edition was published and sometime in between the first and second editions? I'm just generally curious about the context in which he's referring to.

[kgwgk]

> It seems my remark that confused you [...] I feel it's nicer to just ask a question rather than to say someone is confused.

So you can say that I was confused but I cannot say that you were confused? Ok then.

What do you find unclear, really?

The 1st edition of AIMA is from February 1995.

The "Python for Lisp Programmers" page is from May 2000.

The second paragraph starts: "I looked into Python because I was considering translating the Lisp code for the Russell & Norvig AI textbook into Java."