<story><title>Ask PG: Lisp vs Python (2010)</title><text>It seems that a lot of old school Lispers switching to Python (for example: Peter Norvig). What do you think on Lisp vs Python today?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>norvig</author><text>Peter Norvig here. I came to Python not because I thought it was a better/acceptable/pragmatic Lisp, but because it was better pseudocode.  Several students claimed that they had a hard time mapping from the pseudocode in my AI textbook to the Lisp code that Russell and I had online.  So I looked for the language that was most like our pseudocode, and found that Python was the best match.  Then I had to teach myself enough Python to implement the examples from the textbook.  I found that Python was very nice for certain types of small problems, and had the libraries I needed to integrate with lots of other stuff, at Google and elsewhere on the net.&lt;p&gt;I think Lisp still has an edge for larger projects and for applications where the speed of the compiled code is important. But Python has the edge (with a large number of students) when the main goal is communication, not programming per se.&lt;p&gt;In terms of programming-in-the-large, at Google and elsewhere, I think that language choice is not as important as all the other choices: if you have the right overall architecture, the right team of programmers, the right development process that allows for rapid development with continuous improvement, then many languages will work for you; if you don&apos;t have those things you&apos;re in trouble regardless of your language choice.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>edw519</author><text>&lt;i&gt;In terms of programming-in-the-large, at Google and elsewhere, I think that language choice is not as important as all the other choices: if you have the right overall architecture, the right team of programmers, the right development process that allows for rapid development with continuous improvement, then many languages will work for you; if you don&apos;t have those things you&apos;re in trouble regardless of your language choice.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thank you, Peter.  This is how I have felt for years, but could never find words that describe it as well as you just did.&lt;p&gt;Someone should write a program that automatically posts this paragraph at the top of every language war thread.  I think they should write that program in php :-)</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask PG: Lisp vs Python (2010)</title><text>It seems that a lot of old school Lispers switching to Python (for example: Peter Norvig). What do you think on Lisp vs Python today?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>norvig</author><text>Peter Norvig here. I came to Python not because I thought it was a better/acceptable/pragmatic Lisp, but because it was better pseudocode.  Several students claimed that they had a hard time mapping from the pseudocode in my AI textbook to the Lisp code that Russell and I had online.  So I looked for the language that was most like our pseudocode, and found that Python was the best match.  Then I had to teach myself enough Python to implement the examples from the textbook.  I found that Python was very nice for certain types of small problems, and had the libraries I needed to integrate with lots of other stuff, at Google and elsewhere on the net.&lt;p&gt;I think Lisp still has an edge for larger projects and for applications where the speed of the compiled code is important. But Python has the edge (with a large number of students) when the main goal is communication, not programming per se.&lt;p&gt;In terms of programming-in-the-large, at Google and elsewhere, I think that language choice is not as important as all the other choices: if you have the right overall architecture, the right team of programmers, the right development process that allows for rapid development with continuous improvement, then many languages will work for you; if you don&apos;t have those things you&apos;re in trouble regardless of your language choice.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>theblackbox</author><text>Once again the YC community surprises me in both it&apos;s depth and it&apos;s breadth. From someone who has found your (and Russell&apos;s) text invaluable, I say - thank you, sir.&lt;p&gt;And thank you PG/YC for giving me the opportunity to do so.</text></comment>