Am I the only one who finds it hilarious that there are complaints about Lisp syntax, when the language itself is almost infinitely modifiable?
You can replace parens with reader macros. You can replace built in names with ordinary macros(in some dialects, even reassign the built-in functions altogether). Don't like the let syntax? Modify it yourself to something completely different.
You could modify Lisp to look like json if you were so inclined.
You have access to the compiler at compile time and runtime. Do whatever you want.
If anything, people should be complaining about other languages that don't allow for syntax modification. Want to not type semicolons in C? You are essentially out of luck, unless you want to make your own preprocessor (I don't think the standard one has enough expressive power to do so, but I'd love to be proved wrong).
Complaining about parentheses takes zero effort though. You don't have to spend a single second trying to understand why it looks weird like that...
I'm a lisp fan, but to be fair, I don't think I know anybody who wants to live in a world in which everybody has created their own personal language syntax. Reader macros should be used very judiciously unless you don't care about anybody else being able to understand your code.
But if you care that strongly, you can do something about it.
(I am also kind of hoping that, by the time one gets to reader macros, they will be experienced enough, and will understand why the parentheses exist so that they will no longer care about them)
But for many people "caring that strongly" and "doing something about it" means choosing another option. As opposed to essentially writing a new language.
Good defaults do matter, and I would also echo the feeling that the parentheses get in the way, and that a non-small component of my thinking or polishing process is how to responsibly reduce parentheses. I find that it's generally a modest but palpable boost to visual ease. I do wonder whether there's a better way to denote nested lists?
You can replace parens with reader macros. You can replace built in names with ordinary macros(in some dialects, even reassign the built-in functions altogether). Don't like the let syntax? Modify it yourself to something completely different.
You could modify Lisp to look like json if you were so inclined.
You have access to the compiler at compile time and runtime. Do whatever you want.
If anything, people should be complaining about other languages that don't allow for syntax modification. Want to not type semicolons in C? You are essentially out of luck, unless you want to make your own preprocessor (I don't think the standard one has enough expressive power to do so, but I'd love to be proved wrong).
Complaining about parentheses takes zero effort though. You don't have to spend a single second trying to understand why it looks weird like that...