Lisp code is written in those parenthesis because in lisp, that is how you write a list. This means that your code is data that you can easily compute. It's tri

Lisp code is written in those parenthesis because in lisp, that is how you write a list. This means that your code is data that you can easily compute. It's trivial in lisp to quote some code and operate on it, also it means the macro system looks a lot like writing "regular" code. This opens up programming paradigms such as language extending, DSLs and meta programming (writing programs that write programs) that are clumsy, difficult or impossible in other languages. When someone says "In Lisp, everything is a list" ... They really mean everything