Tim Bradshaw  <tfb@tfeb.org> wrote:
+---------------
| (... why I'm interested) in this kind of thing and I think what
| I'm interesting in is minimising `scripting language syndrome'.
| Scripting language syndrome is what happens when a language has
| certain built-in features which are implemented incredibly well, using
| techniques that are not available to you as a user of the language, or
| which are only available by accepting a huge cost, such as
| reimplementing the language.
| 
| The result of scripting language syndrome is that people are
| encouraged to use the built-in things and not to design their own
| tools, because those could never approach the performance of the
| system-provided thing.  So it discourages abstraction and exploration.
| 
| The archetypal case is regular expression support in virtually any
| scripting language - there is magic, high-performance support for
| regexps which you could never hope to approach by implementing them
| within the language.
...
| Lisp has less scripting language syndrome than any language I know.
+---------------

Well said! Some version of the above description of "scripting
language syndrome" should be archived in a public place
such as <URL:http://www.lisp.org/table/style.htm> or maybe
<URL:http://www.lisp.org/table/compare.htm> or <URL:good.htm>!!


-Rob

-----
Rob Warnock, 31-2-510		rpw3@sgi.com
SGI Network Engineering		<URL:http://reality.sgi.com/rpw3/>
1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy.		Phone: 650-933-1673
Mountain View, CA  94043	PP-ASEL-IA