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2 points by thaddeus 3770 days ago | link | parent

Fair enough, you're not saying anything wrong here, but I still do not agree. This really this is about the trade offs each of us are willing to make.

i.e Programmatically[1] yes you might need to count terms, but for code readability I do not count the terms I let code indentation guide me.

I can certainly see how this code indentation factor may be seen as too free in form or structure to be appealing to many, but having less parentheses is a huge readability/enjoyability win. A win that, at least for me, leads to huge gains in productivity.

Also, you do have the option to pretend the token count is even:

  (def example (x)
    (if (is x 1) "One"
        (is x 2) "Two"
        'else  "OOPS"))
  
It's up to you. In my mind power & flexibility are the big draws to LISP. If I wanted to be directed by the language as opposed to empowered by it I would just use C.

1. Once I've had to create a custom macro where I might have had to count the terms, but it's a rare event.