It's a worthwhile question. I'm a huuuuuuuge supporter of the current design though! This conversation came up on the guile-devel list, and I gave my response

It's a worthwhile question. I'm a huuuuuuuge supporter of the current design though! This conversation came up on the guile-devel list, and I gave my response there too: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2015-09/msg00017.html https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2015-09/msg00... Basically, I think that Lisp and Scheme have a reputation for being unapproachable. This reputation partly comes from how we structure our communities, who we reach out to, and etc. But it also depends on how we message ourselves. There's a very conscious decision in the new design to make things look playful and inviting, to encourage experimentation. I think that's super important. It seems like it's having some effect on encouraging people to become engaged, and it certainly doesn't seem to be doing any harm to those who are already into hacking parentheses. :)