For the first part, it's still more intuitive (at least for me personally) to write a = 3/4 + 5/8 than (setf a (+ (/ 3 4) (/ 7 8))) and the prima

For the first part, it's still more intuitive (at least for me personally) to write a = 3/4 + 5/8 than (setf a (+ (/ 3 4) (/ 7 8))) and the primary problem that I have with the parentheses not closing them, but logically seeing how expressions link together. Even if you can click on an end paren and see the expression it closes off (as you can in most IDEs) it would be easier just to not have the extra parentheses there in the first place, so as to avoid the confusion. It's really hard for me to even tell what you're trying to write for the second part -- in Python or Lisp.