[setr]

The claimed problem that exists however is... lame. It really boils to "if it doesn't look like C, I'm not learning it", which is a fairly pathetic argument, and not one that can actually be bested with any targeted marketing or discussion.

Most developers only learn a new language because they're forced to: at work, or joining an existing project as part of their hobby, or because the library they need requires it, or because its the only option available to them. At the point, the fact that it looks like C, or doesn't, won't matter. And they'll get over it. No one claims Nginx/Apache DSL is great, or terribly C-like. Or even really claim that its un-C-like. But I'll reluctantly learn it (to a minimum need) because I want my damned site up. Most languages are learned like that.

Developers who learn a new language for the sake of learning a new language will likely not be drawn in by it being C-like syntax, or not. At least, most who've gone around that rodeo a few times will quickly realize that the superficial syntax isn't that interesting -- It takes 20 minutes to learn the syntax (maybe not APL). You're in it for the different semantics.

What you need for mass lisp adoption is to get a hype cycle going, and pathetic justifications for parenthesis isn't going to get you there. Babbling about how hyper-parameterized cooperatively consistent parenthesized datastructures will change the world is likely more effective.

[tincholio]

> It really boils to "if it doesn't look like C, I'm not learning it"

I think it's funny that most people who complain about this are likely coming from Java, JS, or Python, not C. And they probably would suffer a lot in C...

I've made the jump to Clojure, and to be honest, it's painful going back to other languages, but not just because of the syntax, but rather the lack of expressive power, and the excess of boilerplate. I had to do some Python work last year, and it felt like coding with a straightjacket on.