[ajross]

Python's read doesn't return a s-expression, nor does its print take one; they just use strings. It's eval likewise takes a string. The part missing that lisp has is the inspectable data structure containing an arbitrary parse tree and function result.

[why-el]

I am curious, would Ruby be a good fit in this case? With its irb and all.

[oconnor0]

No, Ruby's implementation of it's interactive mode is similar to Python's - not via data structures, but via strings.