<and yet="people"> <like> <writing> <html></html> </writing> </like> </and>

like? Not really. But at least I have a chance at spotting syntax errors by eye without the help of an editor.

That's the easiest and most superficial rationalization for not bothering to try a Lisp (any Lisp), but also the least compelling argument against it, and likely not even the most significant actual reason you haven't bothered to learn it.

It may not be a fundamental problem for people that know it well. But, first impressions matter nonetheless. Edit:Spelling

I was joking about the syntax and the way how I just can't wrap my brain around reading lisp and matching parentheses.

I was not joking about the recursive and functional nature of Lisp, both of which I'm finding very interesting (and my coworker is, in fact, a big fan of Haskell)

The editor should help you use parens. http://code.google.com/p/counterclockwise/wiki/ScreenShots#S...

Rainbow parens are really helpful and so is automatic paren matching....

automaton