[lispm]

Personally I find Common Lisp in some cases slightly uglier, but clearer.

  (define foo (make-foo))

What is it? A function or a non-function?

I prefer the Common Lisp version:

  (defvar *foo* (make-foo)
    "*foo* is the current input/output foo object.")

It's clear that DEFVAR usually defines a variable and not a function. Bonus: we can document the thing in a standard way.

For functions I would define a define macro.

  (define foo (make-foo)
    "foo is a function with two arguments of type bar, it returns ..."
    (ftype (function (bar bar) baz))

Which would expand into a (setf fdefinition), a type declaration and setting the documentation.

I prefer the uglier, but better standardized and slightly more practical language.