[Gardeners] Possible FAQ question: The myth about Lisp code being 'write only'

[Paul Driver]

> So what, dare I even ask, do these giants of computer science think
> of Perl?  :)

The ones I've talked to sort of like Perl (if they've ever heard of
it...  it's a c++ monoculture around here).  I did talk the head of
department into throwing Ruby at his Software Engineering class, but I
think that was  sort of a disaster.  Oh well.

It's fairly obvious to me why people claim LISP is write-only.  They
don't understand the syntax and can't be bothered to take the
time/talent to grok it properly.  So, they ridicule it to make their
own inadequacy seem acceptable.  Seriously, how hard is it to read a
parse tree?

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax-- Of cabbages--and kings-- And why the sea is boiling hot-- And whether pigs have wings."

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