> (...) although changing from print(x) to (print x) isn't that much of a deal. Except it is. One is just syntax you write to get compiler to emit code you ca

> (...) although changing from print(x) to (print x) isn't that much of a deal. Except it is. One is just syntax you write to get compiler to emit code you can more or less predict at "write time" and the other is a data structure you can operate on and get to emit any code you want. Most people I worked with on Common Lisp / Clojure projects never made the leap to treat the program as data structure. So it evidently is "a big deal". The whole point of Lisp is to have your program be a data structure and then have a core language that is very good at manipulating data structures, so if somebody doesn't get it they are not really realizing benefits of Lisp and they would be better off in a poorer but more approachable language like Java.