[WorkerBee]

but I find the following even easier to understand

Entirely subjective. To me, "#(= (:" is pure line noise.

[Zak]

It would look that way if you don't know Clojure's quick and dirty function literal syntax. Another way to write it is:

  (fn [x] (= (:role x) 'developer))

[WorkerBee]

I don't know Clojure. "(= (:" is equally line noise.

[mquander]

This is an absurd discussion. If you don't know C#, "x =>" is line noise. (More fairly, since (= (x y) z) is trivial to understand if you've ever seen any kind of Lisp, I should say instead -- if you don't know any C-like languages, "List<int> { 1, 2, 3 }; is line noise.)

I suggest you learn the language you program in; problem solved.

[WorkerBee]

The point is that "easier to understand" is, in these cases, subjective enough, and entirely dependant on prior experience enough, to be absolutely meaningless.

[Zak]

I was referring to the semantics being easier to understand. Whether Lisp syntax is easier or harder to understand than C syntax is just not a place we should go.

All programming languages look more or less like words interspersed with line noise if you're not familiar with the syntax.