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What makes Lisp difficult to read?

47 points · 81 comments · ibobev

  1. aaroninsf · · focus · HN ↗
    Hot take: it's the recursive referential grammar, which does not have an analog in human natural language.

    Human languages have hard limits on the reference tracking they support, regardless of syntax (marking, positional grammar, etc.). Humans have to reason to unpack LISP (or deeply nested functions or delegation in other languages).

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