Comment by shaftway

Lisp syntax in a nutshell is:

    "(" {function} [" " {argument}...] ")"

If you don't want to actually run a function, like you just want a list of values, you put a single quote before it:

    "'(" [{item} [" " {item}...]] ")"

So if you want to do `(1 + 2) * 3` it'd be `(* (+ 1 2))`. Parentheses abound.

On top of that everything is a function, including if statements, assignment, and even how you define a new function. So factorial in lisp is:

    (defun factorial (x)
      (if (<= x 0)
        1
        (* x (factorial (- x 1)))
    ) )

You'll notice that it ended with 5 close-parentheses. Different people have different strategies for managing that along with indents and newlines.