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Comment by stevesimmons | Hacker News Reader

I agree. I came to Python in 2000, after Perl (1996-1998), PHP (1999), Matlab (1992-1996), C++ (1990), Fortran (1989), C (1988), Pascal (1988), Assembly (1984-86) and Basic (1981-83).

After all those, I found Python, as the saying goes, really does "fit your brain" [1]. Since discovering Python 18 years ago, I have looked at Haskell, successfully avoided Java, and promised myself to "one day" do more JS. Still, Python remains 95% of what I do, and I don't see a problem with that :)

[1] "Python fits your brain" was the theme of the 9th International Python Convention in 2001.

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> "Python fits your brain"

For me, I find using python is like touching both data and code with my hands.

As much as it's trendy to bash Object Oriented languages, the way python allows to lookup all variables and method on a class or an object makes it like using your hands:

dir(MyClass) help(MyClass) dir(my_object) help(my_object)

etc...

If you'd like to go further along that path, and I'd really recommend trying to learn a lisp. How to Design Programs[0] is good gentle introduction if you're new to the ideas of lisp or functional programming, and SICP[1][2] is the old classic.

[0] http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/HtDP2e/index.html

[1] http://web.mit.edu/alexmv/6.037/sicp.pdf

[2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Op3QLzMgSY&list=PLE18841CAB...

Which one though?

I have looked at LISPs, but it's difficult to pick one to invest time in. Because I am so restricted on time I have to stick to languages which are used in the industry (so my fun has real-life ROI), which I think boils down to CL which is often touted as old-fashion and its market seems to shrink slowly, and Clojure which means the JVM and mainly Java libraries and high mem requirements.

For pure fun and practicality, Racket does seem up on the "list", but not used at all in the industry. A lot of languages (Python, Rust) are adopting the good parts of lisp (except for the minimal syntax, sadly), and I'm getting better mileage from spending time learning and becoming better at those than starting from scratch in a language that I won't be able to use during work hours.

So, I really like How To Design Programs, because the thing it got across for me is how to appropriately think in a functional way. It walks you through building data structures and full programs in a really nice method. I've now been going through SICP, and nothing has seemed out of place as the notation is almost identical, and the few places that it isn't are not hard to translate.

My question was more about which program language, which Lisp to choose in 2018?

Oh, so How To Design Programs uses "teaching" languages, which are sub-languages of Racket. Going from that book to learning the full features of Racket has been fun.

Totally the other way around for me. Perl fits my brain. Python I can't comprehend.

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