Aren't cons cells just an implementation detail? I have no problem calling "lisp" any language where s-expressions are imlemented by any other tree/list data structure, and thus it doesn't have the dot.
I believe that lists are generally defined in the "Lisp" standards as a set of cons pairs terminated by nil.
This makes things a lot harder than they need to be--you effectively MUST process lists by recursion as you don't know you have a list until you hit that far right "nil".
"Lisp" in fact refers to a set of details for implementing a programming environment. The requirements are wobbly, but not so wobbly that you can call anything "Lisp".
This makes things a lot harder than they need to be--you effectively MUST process lists by recursion as you don't know you have a list until you hit that far right "nil".