I mentioned storage handling as a major deficiency of Perl (and
Python), but people are nevertheless using it to handle very large
data sets in memory --- and it works fine, so long as reference
counting meets your needs. (Ghod help you if it doesn't).
> Scheme is easy to parse and to compile -- don't
> try this with Perl at home, kids. Scheme has no syntax troubles. Most
> Scheme stuff can optimize tail-recursion.
Ease of implementation is kind of a moot point to people who aren't
planning to write a new one (and most people aren't). WRT the rest,
please at least grant me that some of these are matters of taste ---
there are probably as many people out there who have trouble with
Scheme's syntax as with Perl's. And optimizing tail-recursion is a
serious issue mainly if it's your language's best iteration construct.
> As Forth, Scheme is a
> steep-hierarchy language, letting you define application languages and
> writing the application.
And as Perl. Sigh...
rst