LFM + LFSP = LFE?

[Michael Vanier <address@hidden>]

It occurred to me that there are a small number of computer languages that
span the spectrum between so-called languages for the masses and languages
for smart people (BTW I wish I'd called the latter "languages for experts"
(LFXs); it would have offended far fewer people).  Some languages appeal to
novice programmers and yet contain quite sophisticated features that allow
advanced programmers to do amazing things.  One might call these "languages
for everyone" or LFEs for short.  Some examples:

Smalltalk: originally designed to allow children (!) to program in, but
includes sophisticated features like metaclasses as well as blocks (sort of
like lambda expressions without lexical scoping AFAICT).  The entire
language environment is often written in the language itself (e.g. squeak).

Python: based on a teaching language called ABC, it's very popular among
novice programmers, but also has lambdas, metaclasses, list comprehensions,
and seemingly more new features every month.

Mathematica: symbolic language heavily influenced by lisp, but with a more
familiar syntax.  You can use it as a glorified calculator, but it's very
flexible because the "real" representation of code is in a form fairly
similar to s-expressions.

Others that I'm less familiar with might include Curl and Rebol.  Anybody
know of any others?

Note that one of the common features of many of these languages is that
they provide lisp-like power with a friendlier syntax.

A-new-buzzword-a-day-keeps-the-doctor-away-ly y'rs,

Mike