[agentultra]

The only problem with Hy is that it's not, technically, a Lisp: it's Python with a Lisp syntax so that you can programmatically manipulate Python AST trees with a simple interface: plain-old-data-structures, iterators, and functions.

caveat I'm a core Hy developer. ;)

[sitkack]

I don't understand how that wouldn't qualify as a Lisp? Does it matter what the level below is implemented out of?

[agentultra]

Lisp is more than just parenthesis, just as Python is more than just whitespace-delimited blocks of text.

We can do some neat tricks by transforming a parenthetical syntax to Python AST that may even seem like Lisp some of the time... but the semantics are and will always be Python without stretching truth and logic a little.