I just like to counter those smug Lispians. Lisp has nice syntax, but the underlying semantics is nothing to write home about any longer. Add tail call optimization to Python (and perhaps continuations) and you have something similar to Scheme modulo syntax.
How a python vs ruby thread turned in to Haskell vs Lisp argument i will never know. The essence of Haskell is that its a lazy statically typed functional language, the essence of lisp is that it treats code as data. There is NOTHING stopping someone from making a Haskell with lisp syntax, and calling that lisp, in fact i think there is such a thing. Code as data is such a powerful idea, it is independent of the underlying paradigm of the language, you can have an algol with lisp syntax and it would be lisp, you can have smalltalk with lisp syntax and it would be lisp. Code is data is the only lisp feature you can't take away from lisp, because if you add it to your language, you don't have a new language, you have a new lisp.
Thats why lispers are smug sometimes, they know that their language will change dramatically in the future to adapt to the new environment, its the source of lisps immortality, it is destined to be reinvented.
I just like to counter those smug Lispians. Lisp has nice syntax, but the underlying semantics is nothing to write home about any longer. Add tail call optimization to Python (and perhaps continuations) and you have something similar to Scheme modulo syntax.