I don't see how the lack of (IMO) optional parens would prevent tools from working - they'd just have to be adjusted. Assuming this example from the ParEdit pag

I don't see how the lack of (IMO) optional parens would prevent tools from working - they'd just have to be adjusted. Assuming this example from the ParEdit page is well-formed lisp: (defun paredit-barf-all-the-way-forward () (interactive) (paredit-split-sexp) (paredit-forward-down) (paredit-splice-sexp) (if (eolp) (delete-horizontal-space))) It doesn't seem that hard to rework a tool to use sig whitespace as indicating parens to have it operate the same over this code: defun paredit-barf-all-the-way-forward () interactive paredit-split-sexp paredit-forward-down paredit-splice-sexp if (eolp) (delete-horizontal-space)