tl;dr The parenthesized NPN (aka s-expressions) turns novices off to Lisp but in fact facilitates side-effect-free, syntax-free versatility. The long-winded cod

tl;dr The parenthesized NPN (aka s-expressions) turns novices off to Lisp but in fact facilitates side-effect-free, syntax-free versatility. The long-winded code snippets author uses are terrible.