Subject: Re: (describe-differences "Scheme" "Common Lisp")
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Date: 1998/09/18
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3115101391715090@naggum.no>

* David Steuber
| When I asked about the differences between Scheme and Common Lisp in my
| original post, I was asking just that.  I certainly wasn't expecting a
| debate as to which language is the best at everything.

* Jussi Piitulainen <jpiitula@ling.helsinki.fi>
| The original question was, if I still remember, just as you say.  It's
| a pity that such an interesting question produces such hostility, but
| that is indeed quite predictable here.

  imagine a question "what is the difference between capitalism and
  communism?" posted to newsgroups dedicated to each political theory.

  that would be known as a "troll" in USENET jargon, regardless of the
  honest intents of the requestor to learn about the differences.  USENET
  is simply not a forum suitable for such inquiries.

  however, asking for the history, evolution, goals, and purposes of each
  language or political theory in separate messages to each group would
  shed light that an intelligent reader could use to produce a list of
  useful differences for his _own_ needs.  requesting such a list from
  others can _only_ produce different lists from each contributor, not one
  of them being right for anybody else if the list is indeed useful for a
  person's choice of language, and no agreement is possible.
  
#:Erik
-- 
  ATTENTION, all abducting aliens!  you DON'T need to RETURN them!