Laptop-based looping

["Andrew Koenig" <ark@acm.org>]

There seem to be several major software packages out there that do similar
things.  I am particularly curious about Sonar and Ableton Live.

If I understand things correctly, both of these programs can handle various
aspects of music production: Recording, equalization, mixing, etc., but
Ableton's focus is on live performance, and in particular it can do looping
in real time in ways that Sonar cannot.

Is my understanding correct Is Sonar useful for looping at all?  Any other
words of wisdom?