How knowing Lisp destroyed my programming career (2006)

Looking at a page about list comprehensions in Python.

  S = {x² : x in {0 ... 9}}
  V = (1, 2, 4, 8, ..., 2¹²)
  M = {x | x in S and x even}

Python (from that page)

  S = [x**2 for x in range(10)]
  V = [2**i for i in range(13)]
  M = [x for x in S if x % 2 == 0]

I did not see 10 or 13 in the original definitions

Perl 6 closest syntax to original

  my \S = ($_² for 0 ... 9);
  my \V = (1, 2, 4, 8 ... 2¹²); # almost identical
  my \M = ($_ if $_ %% 2 for S);

Perl 6 closest syntax to Python

  my \S = [-> \x { x**2 } for ^10];
  my \V = [-> \i { 2**i } for ^13];
  my \M = [-> \x { x if x % 2 == 0 } for S];

Perl 6 more idiomatic

  my \S = (0..9)»²;
  my \V = 1, 2, 4 ... 2¹²;
  my \M = S.grep: * %% 2;

Perl 6 with infinite sequences

  my \S = (0..*).map: *²;
  my \V = 1, 2, 4 ... *;
  my \M = S.grep: * %% 2;

---

Python

  string = 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'
  words = string.split()
  stuff = [[w.upper(), w.lower(), len(w)] for w in words]

Perl 6

  my \string = 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog';
  my \words = string.words;
  my \stuff = [[.uc, .lc, .chars] for words]

I wouldn't say Python's list comprehensions are really that big of a selling point. I mean based on what I've seen to understand it the biggest difference is that feature in Python runs from the inside out.

  noprimes = [j for i in range(2, 8) for j in range(i*2, 50, i)]
                         range(2, 8)
                for i in
                                              range(i*2, 50, i)
                                     for j in
              j
             [                                                 ]

Whereas Perl 6 is either left-to-right

  my \noprimes = (2..^8).map: { |($^i*2, $i*3 ...^ 50).map: { $^j }}
                 (2..^8)
                        .map:
                              { |($^i*2, $i*3 ...^ 50)             }
                                                      .map:
                                                            { $^j }

or right-to-left

  my \noprimes = ({ $^j } for ({ |($^i*2, $i*3 ...^ 50) } for 2..^8))
                                                              2..^8
                                                          for
                               { |($^i*2, $i*3 ...^ 50) }
                              (                                    )
                          for
                  { $^j }
                 (                                                  )

Here are a couple other translations using Set operators

  primes = [x for x in range(2, 50) if x not in noprimes]

  my \primes = (2..^50).grep: * ∉ noprimes;

  my \prime-set = 2..^50 (-) noprimes; # a Set object
  my \primes = prime-set.keys.sort;

Also I'm fairly certain Python doesn't have a way of using them on a Supply concurrently.

  # create a prime supply and act on it in the background
  Supply.interval(1).grep(*.is-prime).act: &say;

  say 'main thread still running';
  # says 'main thread still running' immediately

  # deadlock main thread,
  # otherwise the program would terminate
  await Promise.new;

  # waits 2 seconds from the .act call, says 2
  # waits 1 second , says 3
  # waits 2 seconds, says 5
  # waits 2 seconds, says 7
  # waits 4 seconds, says 11
  # and so on until it is terminated

Basically the only selling point of that feature in Python over say Perl6 is that is at times a bit closer to what a mathematician would normally write.

I'm not a mathematician.

To me it seems a bit verbose and clunky. It probably also only works as a single line, which seems odd in a line oriented programming language. Basically it seems like a little DSL for list generation, sort of like Perl's regexes are a DSL for string operations.

Perhaps you may want to reread the last paragraph from the original article. Maybe in a few years the world will have passed you by. Then again maybe not.

Perl is not an acronym, Larry wanted to call it Pearl, but there was already a language by that name.

Also we tend to prefer Perl 6 to be spelled with a non-breaking space before the 6. [U+A0]

Perl 6 has features from many sources, so it is indeed a departure from Lisp.