The syntax of Smalltalk is simple as is the syntax of Lisp. You can create more powerful constructs and define whatever arbitrary syntax you like with both lang

The syntax of Smalltalk is simple as is the syntax of Lisp. You can create more powerful constructs and define whatever arbitrary syntax you like with both languages. Perl and other C/ALGOL-based-languages don't offer this luxury as they force you to use for loops and while loops and other control structures. Lisp gives you a general do loop and recursion and you define your own control structures based on that. Smalltalk is the same way...a loop is merely a message with a block sent to a receiver object. Perl, C, Python, etc. have rigid syntax and control structures and keywords defined. Common Lisp has only the control structures defined and you can add your own syntax using macros or the syntax read-table. With Smalltalk, the collection objects may have a "while" loop defined, but I can over-ride it if I like.